


The Night Everything Changed!

by Skatersince2004



Category: Sam Crow, Sons of Anarchy, samcro - Fandom, soa
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, First Love, Second Chances, Soulmates, Teen Romance, True Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-07-06 05:57:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 71,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15879939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skatersince2004/pseuds/Skatersince2004
Summary: Teenage Jax and Tara! Rated M for later chapters. Ties into the show and as a prequel to my other story called 'You, and me, and our boys!





	1. Nothing touches her

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Author's Note: This is a prequel story to 'You, and me and our boys'.   
It's my version of J/T falling in love as kids, and I think my idea is different than most stories that I've seen over the years. I wanted to post this first chapter/intro to see if there's even still a interest for this story, since there are already so so many teenage J/T stories out there to choose from.

X

This is not a story about love at first sight, because that would be weird considering the first time they've laid eyes on each other they were both still in diapers, although neither one of them could possibly even remember. 

This is not a story about love at first touch either, since they've played together on the playground during their younger years too, with not a spark in sight between them at the time.

As a matter of fact, they've seen and touched each other countless times over the years since they were little, in blissful unawareness about how much they'd mean to one another one day in the not so distant future. 

They've bumped into each other in the hallway and shared classes and teachers since Kindergarten, all through junior high and now high school, brushed against each other waiting in line getting on or off a ride at Fun Town year after year, or met several times in passing while fighting their way through the crowd at some random house party just in the last year alone, just to name a few. 

So yeah, this wasn't that kind of love story at all, with these two it was definitely a bit more complicated than that, before they both finally realized and accepted the fact that they had feelings for each other. But eventually, they did just that, and this is the kind of story that tells you how that came to be. 

How they came to be Jax and Tara! How they realized that they were in love!

X

Piney was the first of them to notice the flashing lights of the Charming police cars way off in the distance, both teenage boys were too distracted by their own conversation about the latest horror movie available at the local rental place downtown.

On a whim he decides to make that left turn and heads down that road to further investigate, instead of heading straight home. His old pickup truck slowly approaches the scene near the end of the street, and a sickening feeling begins to fester in the pit of his stomach when he recognizes the house where some crime had apparently taken place tonight.

"What do you think that's about?" Jax asks, giving the much older man beside him a quick glance, but before Piney can answer, Opie quickly chimes in alarmed, "Oh shit, dad, that's the Knowles place."

"I know." Piney grumbles when he quickly puts the truck in park, his eyes glancing over in the boys' direction for the first time since he'd spotted the flashing lights. "You two stay put, you hear me." There was an old familiar warning tone to his voice that both teenagers knew better than to argue at any given moment, so they just nod their heads instead.

Piney walks as fast as his big frame allows him to when he approaches the Chief of police, Wayne Unser. "Chief." He says, nodding his head in greeting.

"Piney." Wayne greets him in return.

"What the hell happened?" Piney doesn't waste another minute on small talk and gets straight to the point.

Wayne eyes him wearily for a moment, but at the end falters as was expected. "Break-in, Old-Man-Knowles is out of town, business trip, his daughter was home alone, perp attacked her, but she was able to fight him off."

"Is she alright?" Piney pipes up in concern.

"Yeah." Wayne nods, but then elaborates. "I mean, she's shook up, of course, but she was lucky, no real damage done, if you know what I mean?" He gives Piney a pointed look and they both nod their heads in agreement, before Wayne adds. "I appreciate you stopping by, but we've got this under control, so ..."

"What about the girl?" Piney interrupts him. "Tara, is it?"

"What about her?" Wayne replies rather dumbfounded, even though he has a pretty good idea what Piney is getting at.

"Her old man's out of town, where's she gonna stay?" Piney asks with the most innocent expression he can muster.

But Wayne can see right through him, and actually steps closer to ensure nobody would overhear what he's about to say next. "Charming PD's got this under control, Piney. I don't need the Club involved in this one, getting all up and arms and what not. Every once in a while I could use a win, you know, to keep this badge that keeps this ... this relationship going. Besides, we don't even know if it's the same guy."

Piney has to bite his tongue, which is a hard thing to do for him under any circumstance, but he knows that if he said out loud what he really wants to say, it would get him nowhere tonight. In this instance, diplomacy is needed, "Listen, Knowles and I go way back, and his kid is friends with my kid. She's been over at my place a million times. I think the girl might be more comfortable around some familiar faces until her old man gets back, instead of camping out at the Police station, don't you think?"

Wayne shakes his head, huffing in exasperation. "Little Missy's really shook up, she's still giving her statement to one of my female deputies right now. And I mean no disrespect to your kid and you, but I think under the current circumstances it ain't too farfetched to assume the girl would be more comfortable around other females, if you know what I'm getting at? And last I've heard, Mary and you are on the outs again."

"You said she fought him off?" Piney re-inquires, wondering if maybe he misunderstood earlier.

"She did." Wayne reassures him once more, but quickly adds. "Doesn't mean she ain't scared. She's just a fifteen year old girl for Christ's sake." He lets out a staggered breath and shakes his head once more, before he finally dares to look back up and meet Piney's eyes. "Looks like a goddamn twister touched down in that living room in there, little thing that she is, she put up one hell of a fight, I tell you that."

"Good for her." Piney adds, feeling a small sparkle of pride for a girl he hardly knows.

"Yeah." Wayne nods, and clears his throat as his mind goes back to the other female victims that haven't been this lucky in the recent home-invasions that have been plaguing Charming over the last couple of weeks. "Good for her." He adds too.

Both men quiet down for a moment, their eyes glued to the house while either one of them contemplates their next move, until Piney gives it one last try, "How about you ask her?"

Wayne looks over at Piney, a puzzled look that is quickly answered when Piney elaborates, "Let her choose where she'd be more comfortable at until her father get's back. With Opie and myself? Or with you and your gaggle of deputies down at the station? Let her make up her own mind."

X

Opie pulls two big towel's from the dryer, the thickest and fluffiest looking ones he can find, yet neither one of them is very soft since his father usually doesn't see the need to invest in such trivial things as fabric softener. 

He takes a second to inspect them for stains that might've not come out in the wash, before he's gripping them both in one hand, and slams the dryer door shut with a loud clang on his way out of the laundry room. 

He hurries down the hall towards the bathroom, his footsteps heavy and loud with every step he takes on the worn down hardwood floor, until he comes to a sudden stop and lets his knuckles rap across the wooden surface in front of him. 

The door creaks when Tara opens it, still fully dressed, looking a complete mess, a little peaked, maybe nauseous even, but the water in the shower is already running in the background, when she has to look up to meet his eyes the way he's towering over her.

"Here." Opie says unceremoniously as he holds out the two towels for her, his face as much a blank slate as he can muster at the moment, because the last thing she needs right now is pity. "They're clean." He adds in case she's wondering.

"Thanks, Opie." Tara answers in a rather uncharacteristic small voice, a faint smile tugging on the corner of her busted up lip, and she winces at the pain for just a second before she recovers and musters up a stoic expression again instead. 

She's usually not this shy around him, the opposite really, and he can't help but wonder just what exactly she's been through earlier tonight to make her seem almost like a totally different person to him now.

"You're welcome." He answers, and tries to muster a smile, not sure if it looks genuine, before Tara closes the bathroom door in his face and clicks the lock in place too.

He turns and is just about to step away, when the lock clicks and the door opens once more with another creak. He looks back just in time to see her step into the doorframe, a questioning look on her face now, "You guys don't ... do you have any conditioner, you know, like hair conditioner?"

"Shit." Opie replies, scratching the back of his head as if in thought for a second, even though he knows that isn't the sort of stuff his father spends money on either. "I don't think we do. Sorry."

"That's okay." Tara nods her head, and before he can say anything else, she's closed and locked the door already behind her again.

Opie steps into his room, where he finds Jax stretched out and leaned back in the oversized bean bag, tossing a baseball in the air over head and catching it again repeatedly. He's clearly lost in his own thoughts about what has happened.

An eerie silence stretches out amongst the two friends, all the banter in the truck earlier, before Tara had joined them, has vanished, while Opie's looking through the mess in his closet, trying to find the other set of bedding that he rarely, if ever, uses. 

Once he finds it, he walks over to the bed, clean sheets, pillow case and blanket in hand, tossing them carelessly on top of the magazines that sit in a pile next to his bed, before he starts stripping his old sheets and pillows off of the bed now.

"What do you think they're gonna do?" Jax finally asks out loud what both of them have been thinking, the underlying worry evident in his voice when he speaks. 

Opie twists around to look back at his best friend, who's no longer tossing the ball about but is absentmindedly tracing the red stitching with his thumb instead, turning the white globe over and over again in his hand.

"What do you think?" Opie replies, eyebrows raised and the look he's giving Jax makes it clear it's a rhetorical question, no need to answer or further elaborate. The Club will handle it.

"Yeah." Jax just nods, because that pretty much says it all. "I can't fucking wait to patch in." He mumbles under his breath moments later, before he begins to toss the ball up in the air again, a vain attempt to distract himself from what happened tonight to a girl he's had his eyes on for a while now.

Just then, they can hear the front door to the house open, followed by the commotion in the living room that makes it clear that the other members of the Club have arrived. 

Jax gets up out of the bean bag chair, scrambling to his feet, and Opie abandons his mission to put new linens on his bed like his father has instructed him to, and they both head towards the living room instead, getting their usual greeting of slaps on the back and the mockingly inappropriate banter reserved only for them dished out by their so-called 'uncles', to which they hold no actual blood relations at all. 

Shortly after, Opie's send off to let Tara know that his father's friends have arrived, and she assures him that she's almost ready, while steam's pouring out of the bathroom door when she opens it just enough to speak face to face with the much taller teenager.

She shuts the door once more, and digs through the overnight bag she'd packed that is sitting atop the closed toilet seat lid, in search of her hairbrush. It's not easy to brush through the wet hair without having used some conditioner, and she makes a mental note that should she ever make another overnight trip someplace, she'd ensure to bring her own.

Tara looks down on herself, in the most literal sense, when she takes in the clothes she's put on, and she's frustrated with her own choice that she's made, when the female deputy had helped her pack a bag in a haste to get out of the house, picking clothes straight out of the clean laundry basket that sat on a chair in the kitchen. 

So now in her unflattering grey sweats, and the black oversized t-shirt, featuring none other than Johnny Cash, that actually belongs to her dad, she's feeling like she looks every bit the part, like the proverbial poster child of a battered woman, and she can't help but hate it. 

But on the other hand, slipping the clothes she'd been wearing while she was being attacked back on, feels out of the question, too. The shirt's torn and stretched, and she couldn't wait to get them off of her, because there is just something about those clothes that make her feel downright dirty, to the point that she suddenly bends over and picks them off of the floor to shove them angrily in the way too small trashcan that sits besides the toilet instead. 

She never wants to see those goddamn clothes again. Wish she could light a match to them right now!

She glances back in the mirror one last time, licking her tongue over the cut on her lip, wiping at her blotchy face, and her red rimmed eyes, wishing it wasn't so goddamn obvious that she'd been crying in here, but there's just no denying it, not the way she looks right now. 

She pushes her still wet, long brown hair out of her face, takes in a deep breath, and for the millionth time tonight she wishes her dad was home, because he'd know just what to do in a situation like this to make her feel safe again, and then wills herself to believe that she made the right choice coming here tonight instead of going down to the police station.

She couldn't really say that she knew a whole lot about the Sons of Anarchy, or Sam Crow, how some people called them. She just knew the usual rumors and speculations that always circled around such a small town like Charming, some of them were good, some not. 

But there had never been anything substantial that she had witnessed with her own two eyes that would give her a reason to feel scared of them, if anything the opposite was the case. What she did know was that Piney Winston was a part of it all, and that he was friends with her father, and he'd always seemed like a nice enough guy, a bit of a drunk, just like her dad, but nice nonetheless. 

Opie, his only son, was really nice too, and even though it wasn't like they were close or anything, but she could honestly say that she felt like she knew him. She'd spend countless hours sitting on the couch with him, watching music videos on MTV, or playing videogames, while Piney and her dad hung out, laughing, drinking and reminiscing about times in the war. So in a weird way that made her trust Opie the most out of everyone else in this place.

And then there was Jax Teller, Opie's best friend through thick and thin for as long as Tara can remember, and even now they were practically joined at the hip. He was the son of the founder of the Sons, and the step-son to Clay Morrow, who was the current boss or president of the Club, and despite all of that, he always seemed like any other teenage boy to her. 

Just like Opie, he was nice to look at, handsome even, but also friendly and down to earth, or at least so he'd seemed as far as she could tell. But then again, unlike Opie, she didn't really feel like she knew him much at all.

X

Tara appears timid at first when she's greeted by the rambunctious lot of men in the Winston living room, but the tone and demeanor changes instantly when the gruff looking older men try to make her feel more at ease and feel more comfortable to speak her mind in front of them. 

First impressions can be deceiving, Tara thinks to herself as her eyes drift from one tattooed biker to the next, when they usher her to a comfortable spot on the sofa, and fawn over her like she holds the key, or rather the last missing piece to a puzzle they've been trying to solve for weeks. 

She's a smart girl, and it doesn't take long for her to understand their intentions, when they press her on the details of the break-in to her home, and every minute piece of information she can manage to conjure back up in her head to describe what the intruder looks like. And their eagerness to get to the bottom of it all, soothes her in a way she hasn't expected. It actually makes her feel a little bit safer knowing these rough and gruff looking mountain of men are on her side and are trying to help her in the midst of a horrific evening, while her dad is a plane and car ride away. 

Tara's got a feeling that from here on out she'll never look at them the same, when she'll see the fleet of motorcycles rush past her down the streets of Charming.

X

Meanwhile, the boys have been send back to their room, and Opie goes back to the task of fixing up his bed for Tara, while Jax leans against the dresser, refusing to help, even though he's feeling antsy at the moment. He's on edge, tapping his foot to an imaginary beat in his head to Opie's obvious annoyance, while he's looking through one of his friend's magazines he's pulled from the pile near the bed.

The scene that is currently taking place out in Piney's living room is nothing too unusual. The Sons coming to the aid of someone in this town is a common occurrence to the boys, but so is being shushed away, told to keep quiet and send to their room like they were still little children, just when things were starting to get interesting. 

Both of them hate this so much. After all, they weren't little kids anymore, and if it weren't for their still slightly youthful facial features they could easily be mistaken for grown men, because at six feet four, Opie was already standing as tall as his father, and Jax, at six feet has also outgrown the majority of his fellow sophomores before the last school year had ended just a few days ago. 

But not only that, thanks to a strict weight lifting and workout regimen that both have followed since eighth grade, at the tender age of sixteen they both not only stood just as tall, but were almost as strong and brawny as most of the men currently residing in that living room just down the hall from them, too.

Jax wishes he could turn his brain off, make his mind stop wondering and worrying about everything, about Tara Knowles. He wishes he would've known what to say to her earlier, but he'd been too shell-shocked himself, not just at the news of what had happened, but at how she looked when Piney had brought her with him to the truck. She looked nothing like the girl he'd been secretly pining after for a while now, and it broke his heart as much as it rendered him speechless. 

In yet another attempt to distract himself, he turns the magazine he's holding sideways, folding the top part open, but letting the bottom part of the center poster fall and unfold on its own, before he looks it over from top to bottom with an appreciating smirk. "Where 're you gonna hide all these, huh? I can take 'em off your hands, you know." He actually cracks a real smile for the first time since they've pulled up to the Knowles home earlier, and turns the magazine he's looking through towards his friend, for Opie to see.

"Would you cut that shit out." Opie lets out a frustrated grunt, feeling just as sickened by what has happened to Tara, when he snatches the playboy out of Jax's hand and tosses it under the bed, before he begins to kick the whole pile until they've all disappeared out of sight, letting his agitation out on the stack of magazines instead of his best but obnoxious friend, and the fucked up situation that's out of his control.. 

He starts to gather some of his dirty clothes off of the ground, and along with the dirty sheets and blanket, he begins to shove them all into the closet in an attempt to hide them out of sight as well.

The door opens without so much as a warning knock and Piney steps in, taking in the remaining mess around the room, which isn't all that bad considering how it looked just moments ago, yet the older man still curses under his breath. "Jesus, would you boys clean this shit up?" 

The boys share an annoyed glance that Piney seems to miss completely, but they remain quiet, and the older man quickly reaches in his pocket, pulls out a handful of bills and hands them to his son, before he adds gruffly. "Here, order a pizza or something, I don't think she's eaten yet."

"Sure thing, pop." Opie replies, counting the money his dad has just handed him, but he can't bite his tongue, even though he already knows he won't be told much in return, "Where are you going?"

"Got some Club business to handle, son." Piney replies per usual, but then there's a flash of something in his eyes for a moment that neither Jax or Opie recognize, before the man glances cautiously over his shoulder as he steps further into the room and quietly closes the bedroom door behind him.

Piney runs a hand over his chin, as if deep in thought for a moment, before he finally meets their eyes. His focus going back and forth between the two teenage boys standing before him as he speaks. "Listen up, Clay and Gemma took Tig and the prospects with them up to Rogue River, so we're already shorthanded, which means I'm counting on the two of you to help keep an eye on the girl. Don't let her out of your sight, you understand?" There is a seriousness to the tone of his voice that can't be missed and the atmosphere in the room practically changes along with his words.

Jax and Opie glance at each other, both with a mixture of intrigue, but also puzzlement in their eyes, and Opie's the first to shrug his shoulders, "Sure, okay, pop." He's feeling a sense of excitement rush through him, yet not really understanding why they're being brought into the loop all of a sudden. "But ..." He glances back at Jax wondering if he's getting that same eerie feeling too, before he meets his fathers' eyes again. "I mean, what's going on?"

Piney clears his throat, and holds up four fingers in the same moment he begins to speak. "Four women have been attacked in home-invasions over the past month, not a single one of them made it. Left for dead in their own homes. Tara would've been number five. She's seen the guy, can identify him ... so like I said, don't let her out of your sight, keep her safe. Do you think you two knuckleheads can manage that?"

"Of course, Piney." Jax chimes in for the first time, pushing away from the dresser and rising to full height, like a soldier called to action. His tongue-tied reaction earlier might've not been one of his finer moments, but he's more than ready to make up for it now. He can protect Tara, he knows he can. "Nothing touches her." He says, it's a line he's heard Tig utter a thousand times to Clay in reference to keeping his mother safe, and deep down he's reveling in the feeling of using the words himself for the first time.

"Don't worry, we've got this, dad." Opie adds, and at that Piney gives them both an approving nod.

X

The Sons have disappeared just as quickly as they'd appeared, leaving her back to her own scary thoughts in someone else's house.

So Tara sits rather awkwardly on Piney's comfy old recliner, her bare feet pulled up on the chair under her, a cup of tea in her hand that's no longer hot, barely even warm at this point, but it keeps her hands busy, keeps herself from fidgeting too much, so she continues to hold the cup even thought she has no intentions of drinking it.

She's so lost in her own thoughts that she doesn't even notice Jax stepping into the doorframe, leaning against it and watching her, until he suddenly speaks up. "You doing okay, darlin'?" 

She looks up at him now, meeting his eyes and the innocent smile he's giving her, and despite the gravity of her current situation, she can't help but smirk at him a little when she recalls his words just now. "Did you seriously just call me 'darling'?"

That is not at all how Jax has expected her to react, so it catches him off guard and he lets a chuckle escape against his better judgment. "Yeah, I did ... sorry, force of habit, I guess." He swipes a hand down his face, when he steps further into the room now, eyeing her wearily across the room.

He takes a seat on the armrest of the sofa, and his face is more serious again as he really gets a chance to look at her now in the light. It had been dark when Piney had kicked him and Ope out of the truck and had ordered them to sit back in the truck-bed instead, so she could climb into his seat in the truck without being gawked at, and not be bothered by the two of them. 

Then she'd disappeared straight into the bathroom when they'd gotten here, but now here she was, and he'd be lying if he said it didn't piss him off seeing her in this fragile looking state, because even though he barely even knew her, he knows enough about her to know that this isn't who she is at all. 

Tara Knowles is outspoken, she's confident, she's popular. Last school year she was a Charming high cheerleader for crying out loud. He can still vividly picture her walking down the hall in her cheerleading outfit, laughing and talking to her friends without a care in the world. She had undoubtedly caught his eye a time or two in that cheerleading get-up.

"You okay though?" He asks again, but is not surprised when she simply nods her head, even though the look in her eyes tells a whole different story. 

She's not okay, far from it, that much is clear, but if she's not up for sharing he won't pry, and who can blame her, it's not like they're friends or anything. He knows her, knows who she is, and vice versa. And yeah, he's always thought she is kind of hot, maybe even a little out of his league if he's being completely honest, but all that considering, they haven't exactly spend time in the same circles, or hung out together like this ever, ... until now!

Opie appears in the doorframe now, a little notepad in hand, and to Tara's relief, he changes the subject altogether and with it freeing her from Jax's scrutinizing gaze. "You hungry? We were gonna order some pizza."

She's not hungry at all, simply has no appetite after her ordeal, but she also knows it's just her nerves and if her dad was here he'd probably make her eat something, so she reluctantly agrees, telling only half a lie. "I'm not real hungry, but I'll eat a slice." She shrugs her shoulder at the last word, as if to come off as more at ease, which she doesn't feel at all.

"Any preference on toppings? Anything you can't stand at all?" Opie asks, tapping his pen against the little notepad in his hand, coming off either nervous or impatient, which, she's not really sure.

But Tara just shrugs her shoulders again, she won't make a fuss and will just pick off anything she doesn't want, it's not like she feels much like eating in the first place. "No, I'm fine with whatever. I'm easy."

A smirk appears for a fraction of a second on Jax's face, he's quick to hide it biting down on his own lip and turning his head away from her towards Opie behind him, but she's caught it and it almost makes her want to shrink further into the seat in hiding. "I'm easy, too." He replies to a question Opie didn't direct at him, and Tara can feel the blush rising in her cheeks, wishing she hadn't giving him a chance to tease her.

His reputation as a bit of a flirt proceeds him, although she can't say or recall ever having been on the receiving end of his so-called charms. And right now, under the current circumstances she's not really amused, but rather annoyed by it.

"Alright." Opie replies clearly un-amused as well, shaking his head at something, before he disappears back into the kitchen around the corner where the phone is mounted on the wall, when Jax turns his attention back to her now, noting the untouched cup of tea in her hand, before he asks. "Want something else to drink?" Tara shakes her head no. 

He looks over his shoulder at the blanket draped over the back of the sofa, "Are you cold? Want a blanket?" Again, Tara shakes her head no, but Jax rambles on, feeling slightly guilty for making her blush, so now he's trying to make up for his insensitivity. "You know, if there's anything you want, need, whatever, just ... just let us know, alright?" He sounds sweet, and she can tell he's being genuine this time when he looks over at her, fiddling with a lighter he'd pulled out of his pocket moments ago, and Tara simply nods her understanding. 

He seems almost nervous to her now, sitting there, not sure what to say or do with himself, and strangely his uneasiness makes her feel more at ease, like she's not the only one feeling awkward in the room for the first time tonight. 

A silent beat or two passes, and they both look at everything but each other, taking in the countless knick-knacks Piney has sitting on every inch of free space around the room, when Jax finally tries to break the ice with small talk. "So, how old are you?" He suddenly asks out loud, but then adds, "I mean, are you a Sophomore or a Junior?" He wants to groan inwardly at his own stupid attempt to pry some words out of her, because he already knows the answer, knows she's going to be a Junior, just like Ope and him.

"I'm gonna be a Junior after the summer break." She bites her lip for a second, contemplating, before she adds, "We actually had AP English together last semester." They've had several of the same teachers and classes over the years, but AP English was the most recent one she can recall.

Jax snaps his fingers as if he just now remembered the same thing, as they both blurt out "Mrs. Rice." at the same time. 

They nod in unison, before Tara surprises him when she adds, "I don't think she likes me."

"Why'd you say that?" Jax replies without missing a beat, relieved that they found something to talk about that doesn't seem so utterly forced.

Tara shrugs again, she's doing that a lot tonight, and meets his blue eyes that are focused solely on her now, making her almost want to hide away again, because a boy shouldn't be allowed to be this pretty to look at. "I don't know, I think that class just isn't really my strong suit."

Jax smirks a bit at that, finally settling all the way onto the sofa, leaning back and propping his feet up on the coffee table, clearly much more relaxed now. "It's AP, as in advanced placement, darlin', so something about it must've suited you just fine."

Is he teasing her, or is he serious? Tara can't tell, but there's that word again, 'darling', and the way it flows so easily from his lips this time makes her forget to call him out on it. 

She leans to the side and finally releases the cup of tea she's been holding this entire time from her death grip, putting it on the small side table beside her, before she looks back at him and crosses her arms in front of herself. "I think I just do better with facts, factual stuff, you know, like science, and math, ... concrete stuff, that sort of thing. With the books she picked last year, and had us write those god-awful essays on them, it just gives you too many different ways to interpret what's going on, and I don't like that." She shakes her head along with her last words. "And god forbid she doesn't agree with your interpretation, then you're screwed."

"Hmmm." Jax looks at her almost puzzled, "That's my favorite part, the interpretation, I mean you can pretty much come up with anything, bullshit your way through it as long as you can back it up with something in the story or book."

"I don't know." Tara shakes her head to herself, meeting his eyes again, "It's just not that easy for me. I guess not everyone's as good at bullshitting as you." She smirks, glad for the lightheartedness of this conversation, and he smirks right back, too. It amazes her how easily he is to talk to. 

"You've got that right." He agrees suddenly, "Bullshitting is a skill in itself, but hey, I'm free to tutor you if you want, honey." He opens his arms in a welcoming gesture and gives her the biggest tooth baring grin she's ever seen on him.

But before Tara can reply with some smart-aleck comment in return, Opie appears back in the room, "Giovanni's running behind on delivery's, said it'll take up to an hour, but we can pick it up sooner. So, I'm gonna go get those pizzas real quick?"

"Alright." Jax nods and chimes in, content in his spot on the couch, not moving a muscle. "Pick up a movie too, man. Something funny." 

Opie looks back at her as if he's just about to say something when Tara beats him to it, "Can I come with you?"

"Um." Opie seems a bit unsure for a moment, looking from her back to Jax for a second, before he nods at her in return, "Yeah, sure."

Tara gets up without missing a beat, slipping on her shoes that are sitting in front of the recliner, before she starts following Opie out the room. 

For a moment Jax hesitates, but then he quickly gets up too. "Guess we're all going then." He mumbles under his breath, just as he's catching up with them, falling in step right behind her, as they all trail after Opie out the front door. 

Jax can't recall a girl ever dismissing him in the middle of a conversation to leave with Opie instead, and even though he could never admit such a thing to his best friend out loud, it bothers him somehow that Tara Knowles did just that. Choosing Opie's company over his ... it stings, to say the least, and it definitely has bruised his ego just a little, too!

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End Note: I've pretty much said it all in my Author's note at the top, but please leave me a few words/comments to let me know what you think of it this far. I'd really appreciate it so much, and it would give me an insight if there's still a Jax and Tara audience out there interested in yet another teenage story of them, and if I should keep working on this (eventually), or just let things be as they are and focus solely on my other story and my series of one-shots instead. If it turns out that you guys want me to continue this, then I certainly will, but my main focus right now is still on 'You, and me, and our boys', so I probably won't update this story regularly until that other one is complete. Thank you for your for your input.


	2. Your call

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Author's Note: Thank you so much to all of you who took the time to comment or review the first intro chapter. I really wasn't sure if another J/T teenage story was warranted, but I'm glad to see that there's still this much interest.

X

Without further discussion, they all step outside, but unbeknownst to Tara, both Opie and Jax keep watchful eyes on their surroundings. They have one job to do tonight, the Club is counting on them to keep the girl safe, and they aren't going to fuck this up. 

So they all pile into Piney's pickup truck, Opie gets in behind the wheel, from the passenger side Tara climbs into the middle, her muscles and bruises protesting in pain, making her wince at even this small incline to climb inside. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Jax offering his hand, trying to help her, but she powers through it and pretends she didn't see it, so eventually he drops it without saying a word, before he climbs into the seat right next to her. 

Even though the truck has a single bench seat, easily fitting three men, it did not however have much foot room for the person sitting in the middle. The floorboard is elevated in front of the middle seat, to accommodate the manual stick shift, and you have to basically lift your leg over to the other side and sit with your legs spread in order to sit comfortably. 

For a grown man, nothing unusual since most of them sit that way to begin with, but for a teenage girl of Tara's size, it is an awkward way to sit, to say the least, especially considering that the driver would constantly be shifting back and forth right in front of her, too.

So to preserve one last shred of dignity, Tara doesn't do that, instead she keeps both her legs on the passenger side of the gear shift, knees pressed tightly closed, as much as she can, to not invade too much into Jax's personal space right beside her. 

But of course, leave it to the blonde teenage boy to point out the obvious, treating her like she was some kind of prissy girl, who'd never sat in a pickup before. "You know you can put your left leg on the other side, darlin', you'd have more room, probably be more comfortable that way." Jax says, pointing to the other side of the stick shift while he speaks.

"I'm sorry, do you need more room?" Tara meets his eyes and asks without missing a beat, and Opie feels a little less tense when he finally hears her more confident tone of voice come through again for the first time tonight.

"No, don't worry about me, I'm fine." Jax shakes his head, and moves his legs just a little, to show that he has more than enough room still.

"Well, then ... no offense, guys." Tara dryly replies, looking up at Jax for a second again, who'd raised a cigarette up to his lips, lighter already in hand, before she dares a look at Opie on the other side of her, smoking already, and adds just as dryly. "But I don't open my legs that wide around boys I barely know."

What follows are gales of laughter from both boys, and Tara smirks and then even blushes a little, when Jax finally stops laughing and looks passed her to meet Opie's eyes instead, raising his eyebrows almost to his hairline, when he says grinning, "I like her." 

Opie's still grinning too, because this is the girl he's come to know. He puts the truck in reverse and slowly backs out of the driveway, then quickly puts the truck in drive and starts heading down the street. 

Both windows are rolled down, a cool summer breeze flowing through the cabin of the truck, and Tara pulls her long hair together into a low ponytail, using the scrunchie she'd shoved into the pocket of her sweats earlier, while both guys smoke away in silence as if this is the most natural thing to them at just sixteen years of age.

"Could we make a quick stop at my house?" Tara suddenly interrupts the quiet, finally giving light to her true intentions all along why she wanted to go along with Opie, but she doesn't miss the way the guys share another look between them, like they've been doing a few times tonight.

But before either one can even answer her, she tugs at her grey sweats and her shirt, trying to make her point, "I wear this to sleep in, and this t-shirt isn't even mine, it's my dad's. I just want to change into some jeans, one of my own shirts, and I also forgot to grab my toothbrush."

"Cops might still be there." Jax pipes up.

"So?" Tara replies, and shrugs her shoulders again. "It's my house, they can't stop me from getting something out of my own house."

"Yeah, but ..." Opie starts, but then the words die down on his lips, and he shares another look with Jax, suddenly unsure what to say exactly.

"What is it?" Tara stares at him, having caught the look he'd given his best friend just now.

Opie sighs, because knowing Tara, it would be easier to just come right out and say it. "My dad asked Jax and I to keep an eye on you? Because that guy is still alive and out there somewhere."

"Okay." Tara replies, "I appreciate that, but what does that have to do with me grabbing some clothes out of my room?"

Opie flicks the ash off of the cigarette out the window, before he glances back at her for a second, "I'm pretty sure my old man will lose his shit if he finds out we took you with us to get pizza, let alone make a pit-stop at the scene of the crime along the way?"

Tara scrunched her eyebrows together, "So what ... I'm your prisoner? I'm not allowed to leave?"

Opie lets out a frustrated sigh. "Look." Jax chimes in for the first time now, realizing Opie isn't quite sure what to say, so he's coming to his defense. "Of course you're not our prisoner, but when the Club left, it was implied that we're not suppose to leave the house, so we're already pushing our luck bending the rules here, darlin'. The quicker we all get back, the less likely Piney will find out. Not sure if you've ever had the privilege to be on the receiving end of Piney's anger, but trust me, it ain't fucking pretty."

"It will only take like a couple of minutes, it's not like I'm packing for a vacation or something." Tara begins to plead her case with them, but then on a whim decides to change her tactic and suddenly adds. "Or I can get out right here right now, walk the rest of the way to my place and won't be your fucking problem at all anymore. Your call."

"Jesus, your old man wasn't kidding when he said you're a fucking handful." Opie mumbles under his breath, but after a few more seconds he abruptly pulls into the nearest empty driveway to turn around, since he'd already missed the turn-off to the street where she lives. 

And while Tara tries her best not to openly smile in triumph, Jax right beside her does and shakes his head in a bit of amusement, wondering just why Opie has never mentioned knowing this girl to him before.

"Why don't you go on and get the pizza, and I run in and get changed and pack some clothes for tomorrow, and you come get me again on the way back. Saves us time that way, if you're really that worried about Piney coming back soon." Tara offers as a solution, looking back and forth between the two of them for a reaction.

Opie shares another look with Jax, and Tara can see the reluctance in both their faces, but then Opie finally nods, just in time as he pulls up to the curb right in front of her house and comes to a complete stop. No sign of Charming PD anywhere at this point, the house looks dark and empty, as if nothing of importance has taken place here earlier tonight.

"Alright, you and me get your stuff, while Opie get's the grub." Jax says, extinguishing the last of his cigarette against the outside of Piney's truck, before he flicks the end of it out of the window, and shoots Opie a look, "We'll stay inside until we see you pull up."

But just when Jax reaches for the door handle, Tara speaks up. "Why can't Opie come with me, and you go get the pizza instead."

Another glance between the two boys and this time Jax can barely keep the obvious irritation of being dismissed by her off of his face, but before he can speak, Opie does the talking for them. "Jax isn't allowed to drive my dad's truck anymore."

"Why not?" Tara inquires, looking confused.

"It's a long story." Jax replies now from the other side of her. "It's either you and me doing this, or you'll have to keep wearing what you are. Your call." He repeats her words to them from just a few moments ago, and gives her a pointed look.

"Fine, let's go then." Tara says, and nods towards the door for him to open it already.

Jax quickly climbs out, and this time he doesn't leave her a choice, and basically lifts her out of the truck when she seems to struggle for even a second. But neither of them says anything about it, just merely a look is shared, before Jax shuts the door on the truck and Opie takes off without so much as a look back.

The streetlights in front of the house, mixed with the full moon and clear sky, illuminate everything enough for them to be able to see, even considering how late it is already. When they're walking up the driveway, it suddenly dawns on Tara that she doesn't have her keys with her, never even brought them over to Piney's in the first place, and to the best of her knowledge they're still in the house, probably sitting on the counter of her vanity table in her room. 

She checks the front door anyways, after all, the house had still been packed with Charming PD by the time she'd taken off, but it's no surprise to her that the door doesn't budge. But she plays it off well before Jax can even ask, and comes right out without a trace of embarrassment in her voice, "We've gotta go 'round back, use the spare key. I left mine in the house earlier." And Jax silently follows her along, hot on her heels, to the black wrought iron fence that runs along the side and around the back of the house.

He's still keeping a lookout for anything suspicious, even though he really doesn't think the guy would be stupid enough to still be hanging around once the cops had shown up earlier, but you can never be too sure. So while he's busy looking over his shoulder, trying to focus on anything possibly lurking in the shadows of the neighborhood surrounding them, Tara's attempting to climb the fence by herself.

"Fuck." She suddenly curses out in a low whisper, holding her side in obvious pain, standing in front of the only five feet tall fence, and is rewarded with his full attention again at once.

"What's going on?" Jax whispers back and steps closer to her.

Tara shakes her head in frustration, "I've climbed this damn fence more times than I can count since I was little, but ..."

"You're hurt." Jax finishes for her, because it doesn't take a genius to have figured that out by now, by the way she's winced just getting in and out of Piney's truck.

Tara just nods, averting his eyes because she's embarrassed, but Jax doesn't linger on the subject, doesn't ask her what or where it actually hurts, but instead just intertwines his fingers, locking his hands together and holds them out in front of her, his palms facing up, so she can use it like a step.

She hesitates for just a split-second, but then puts one foot on his hands, holds onto the fence with one hand, bracing herself on his shoulder with the other and he quickly gives her a successful boost up, reaching up and holding her by her waist until she sits down securely. Like a crow on a wire!

She's sitting atop the horizontal iron bar that runs along the top of the fence, wondering for a second how painful it would be to just jump down in her condition, but before she can even finish that thought, Jax climbs across with ease and speed, the metal slightly vibrating under her from his movement. And then he's already standing in front of her now, reaching up for her waist and is pulling her down towards him before she could even think to protest. "We need to hurry and get inside, you being out here in the open makes me fucking nervous."

"Thank you." Tara answers sweetly at first, for his help to get over the fence, before she's making sense of what he's just said. And she's smart enough to know what he's getting at, knows Jax is worried the guy might be lurking behind one of the neighbors bushes or in the shadows of a tree, and with a gun could easily finish her off from that short distance. "He doesn't have a gun." She whispers back.

"What?" Jax asks at first, wondering if he's heard her right as they head towards the back of the house, noting how their surroundings are much darker now since they no longer have the benefit of the streetlamps that are lining the road, there's only the bright big moon overhead to light up their way now.

"I said he doesn't have a gun, just a knife." Tara repeats still talking in hushed voices, as Jax follows her to the back porch, but he can't help it and has to ask. "How do you know that?"

"Because he pulled a knife on me. If you had a gun, wouldn't you point that at someone instead?" Tara replies as if it is a no-brainer, but Jax taps the Ka-bar knife on his belt for a second, making sure she sees him do it, before he replies. "Maybe he just prefers using a knife." He feels pretty confident with his choice of weapon.

Tara tries not to roll her eyes at him, but she can't bite her tongue. "Or maybe he's merely sixteen and doesn't own a gun."

"He's our age?" Jax asks in surprise, a one track mind at the moment that's all about protecting her, and has either missed or is completely dismissing the way she's just teased him amidst it all. 

He's turning away from her again, being the look-out, while Tara's bend down, looking for the fake rock that holds the spare key inside, hidden in the pretty flower bed she'd started planting earlier in the spring. 

"No, he's a grown man. I was kidding." She replies, starting to work the key into the lock now.

When Jax hears her unlocking the door, he turns around and stops her just in time before she's pushing the door open. He takes the key from the lock and pockets it, pulls her behind him and steps in front of her, pulling his knife from its holster now too, not taking any chances.

Up until this point Tara hasn't really felt all that nervous coming back, or maybe she's just successfully convinced herself that there is nothing to be nervous about, and put on a brave face, but the way Jax is acting now has her suddenly scared all over again, and has her rethinking her own idea. Coming back for something as trivial as a change of clothes starts to sound dumber with every passing second. 

They step inside the quiet darkened house, Tara's right behind him, he's reaching back with his free hand, making sure she stays hidden behind his bigger frame as they take small steps further inside, before Jax reaches over and flicks on the lights to the hallway by the door. 

Her bedroom is to the right of them, and he flicks the light on there as well before they both step into her room, him ushering her now ahead of him. 

He nods towards the wall for her to stand, makes her wait between her bedroom and closet door, while he checks her closet, checks the on-suite bathroom too, even goes as far as to bend down and checks under her bed for her, and for a moment Tara's reminded of her father doing that to check for monsters in her younger years. 

Never in her wildest dreams would she have predicted or pictured that Jackson Teller would be in her bedroom like this, wielding a knife, checking every crevice for some bad guy that's after her. It seems so utterly surreal to her, like she's caught in some twisted mixture between a dream and a nightmare. 

But she shakes those thoughts away, waits for Jax's approving nod to allow her to relax and venture further about her own room. "All clear here, so do your thing, but hurry, while I go check the rest the house. Close and lock your door behind me, alright?"

"Okay. Thanks." Tara nods, and watches him leave, doing as he instructed her and locks her bedroom door behind him, she's almost shaking now at how nervous his cautious demeanor makes her.

But she tries once more to push her fear away and doesn't waste any time, quickly shrugs out of her clothes, and pulls on a pair of jeans along with a black top that actually fits her. She then grabs another couple of her favorite things to wear, shoves them hastily into an empty old backpack she found sitting on the bottom of her closet, and hurries to get her toothbrush and a few other toiletries she had forgotten earlier, too. 

She also grabs her small black purse, checking to see if her wallet is still inside, grabbing her little bottle of perfume and some make-up off of her vanity and shoves that in, too, but to her surprise, what she can't find are her keys. Maybe she's left them in the little catch-all bowl on the little shelf in the living room across from the arm chair. She does leave them there sometimes instead, she'll just have to check and see.

Then she sits for a moment on the chair by her vanity, taking a deep cleansing breath, clutching her bag and her purse, ready to get the hell out of here now. No longer busy, her heart is starting to pound faster in her chest with every second that's ticking by, because Jax is taking longer than she thought it should take to check the rest of the house. But she tells herself that he's never been here, doesn't know the layout of the place, and he's probably just being thorough, or at least she hopes that that's what's keeping him ... nothing more.

Just as that thought appears in her head, there's a little knock on her door, followed by an almost whispered "Darlin', it's me."

Tara gets up quick, swift fingers unlocking the door now without hesitation and for a split-second she's almost tempted to hug him in relief when she is greeted with a sweet smile and friendly blue eyes from him upon opening the door. But on a closer look she notices that his smile doesn't quiet reach said eyes though, and she already knows why. It's because he saw the living room, and the way it is trashed because the brunt of the fight has happened there. 

"Ready? Got your keys this time?" He asks, grabs her backpack from her and swings it over his shoulder with ease.

"No, actually, I think I might've left them in the living room." Tara says trying to convince herself, even though she could've sworn she tossed them on her vanity, right next to her purse, when she got home after work this afternoon.

"Alright, let's get 'em, Ope should be back pretty soon, too." He flicks the lights off behind her, his hand is on her lower back to usher her out of the room, before he pulls her bedroom door closed behind them. They pause just long enough for Tara to lock the back patio door beside them on their way to the living room, Jax flicking off lights along the way as well.

She swallows the lump in her throat when they have to step over and sidestep some of the mess on the floor on their way through. Her dad had told her on the phone to leave it be, so he can take stock of what's been broken, take pictures for their insurance claim, too, but it's a eyesore, it disturbs her every time she sees it.

She's leading the way to the front living room, but Jax is right on her heels, his knife's tugged away again and it's strange how it eases her mind considerably that he obviously found nothing of concern.

However that moment of ease is short-lived when Tara's rifling through the little catch-all bowl and is not finding what she's looking for. She's starting to feel a little nauseous now, cold sweat beginning to form in the hollow of her back when she lets the reality set in that her keys aren't here either. She quickly glances around the rest of the room again, it's such a mess, but no, they're not here. 

But before she can bring voice to her sudden panic, Jax interrupts her when he speaks up, "What kind of dog do you have? And where is he?" When he'd checked the rest of the house, he'd noticed the dog bowls on the kitchen floor, still food and water in them, but no dog in sight. 

He's standing in the little reading nook by the front window, facing the street, the blinds are closed, but he's holding open a little gap, peeking through, keeping an eye out for Opie pulling up with the truck.

"Oh ..." Tara shakes her head, suddenly so flustered and nervous, but still letting her eyes scan over the stuff around the floor once more just to make sure, while she answers him. "He's a big mutt, not even sure what he is. He's at the vet, he's been throwing up the last few days, so my dad dropped him off on his way to the airport this morning. He's pretty old." She rattles out the explanation way too fast, spinning around then, can't keep up the small talk about her pet anymore, and can't keep the panic from her voice another second longer either. "I ... I can't find my keys. They're supposed to be here, but they're not, but this is where I would've left them."

"Charming PD probably took 'em, had to lock up somehow." Jax offers as explanation without missing a beat, turning in her direction because he took notice of the shaky and scared tone in her voice, even though his mind was brewing over something else at the moment. Her dog.

"Right." Tara nods her head in a temporarily moment of relief, "You're right, that's probably -." Instantaneously her eyes flicker up to the front door before she even finishes that sentence, but she can already see it. "Oh shit." She rushes to the door, noting how just the bottom lock is engaged, the one you can just pull shut behind you when you leave, but the deadbolt is still unlocked. Charming PD would've made sure to lock that if they had taken her keys.

"What?" Jax says and steps around the corner, right beside her, but she doesn't have to explain a thing, his eyes scan over the locks and he's caught on just as quick as she did. And then he reaches up, locking the deadbolt in place now, before he quickly flicks off the lights, too, leaving the house back in the dark again, just like they'd found it.

"What are you doing?" Tara asks in a hushed voice, not understanding how being in the dark is a good idea considering what they've just discovered.

"If he's got your keys, darlin', you really want him to know you're back home?" Jax whispers back, and even though it's dark, there's enough light coming in from the streetlamps through the blinds that he can see her nod her head in understanding. He reaches passed her, looking through the blinds, mumbling under his breath. "Where the fuck is Ope?"

Tara's hiding her face in her hands, she's visibly shaking, barely able to contain her panic now. She had been perfectly safe at Piney's house, what the fuck was she thinking wanting to come back here tonight. She feels like such a child right now, suppressing the urge to cry out for her dad, god, what she wouldn't give for him to be here right now. 

But Jax brings her out of her dark thoughts when he reaches out for her. She flinches at first, hasn't expected his touch, but his voice is low and soothing and she lets him pull her into his arms, "Hey, it'll be alright. I won't let anything happen to you. I promise" 

He manages to sound downright convincing for her benefit, but he himself is starting to have a very bad feeling about all of this. 

This isn't just some random break-in, he obviously has staked out the house, somehow knew her dad would be gone, got the dog sick, getting rid of it, too, leaving her helpless and alone at home, completely oblivious to the fact that she was being targeted. 

Which also meant that the guy might've been out there all along, had been watching the house this whole time, waiting for her to come back tonight to finish the job, before her old man got back in town again. Shit!

"Where's your phone?" He whispers, to hell with Piney's wrath, they could be in deep shit here and he's not chancing it. 

"There's one right over there." She nods in the direction of the smaller living room with the TV, between here and the dining room, while she whispers back in a hurry, suddenly having the same idea as he is. Let's call the police.

Jax looks out the window once more, but when there's still no sign of Ope, he slips off her backpack and leaves it by the door, grabbing her hand and tugging her along, careful not to trip and fall over the mess between here and there, thankful that their eyes seem to have already adjusted to the darkness again. 

He lifts the receiver up to his ear, quickly dialing the number he has memorized by heart, waiting for the cue then asks her for her number. At first Tara looks confused for a split-second, but gives it to him anyways, and he punches it in fast, before he quickly hangs up.

"I thought you were calling the cops." She brings voice to her thoughts in another low whisper.

"No, I paged Sam Crow." He replies just as quietly, and takes a seat right by the phone, perched on the armrest of the big oversized lazy-chair. Running a soothing hand up and down her back, and pulling her into his side again. "Trust me."

"So, now what?" Tara says, just slightly allowing herself to relax a bit, mostly due to his reassurances.

"Now we wait for Piney to call back." Jax replies confidently. 

They wait patiently for the phone to ring for several long minutes, but when it doesn't, Jax makes some more calls, paging his other 'uncles', other members of the Club, every number etched into his mind, memorized for moments just like this one. He's leaning out of her way, but still keeping his hand on her back when Tara enters her phone number each time. Waiting and hoping one of them will finally call back before too long, because he's not sure how much longer he can keep her from calling Charming PD instead. 

But when still nothing happens, Tara goes back to the window by the front door, checking if maybe Opie has pulled up yet, while Jax watches her from the other side of the room, but stays within reach of the phone should it finally ring.

They don't speak, just sit and wait in complete silence and darkness, and Tara swears her heart is beating so crazy fast in her chest, that she's convinced Jax can hear it on the other side of the room. 

Tara's looking out the window, still keeping a look-out for Opie, when there's suddenly a noise coming from the back of the house, it startles them both, and she spins around the same instant Jax comes to a stand from his seat in the chair. 

Their eyes meet when they hear a noise again, and from the sounds of it, it's someone trying to unlock the back door. Their eyes are still connected across the distance, Tara looking back at Jax in a panic, he raises his finger up to his mouth, telling her to keep quiet, but next makes a gesture with his hand, also telling her to come over to where he is, so she does, careful not to trip or step on something that could make a noise.

The door to the coat closet right across from them is still open from when he had checked the house earlier, so he quickly ushers her inside, getting in after her and pulls the door almost all the way closed. Thankful that the hinges are well oiled and don't make a sound. He's leaving just a small sliver of a gap so he's still able to see out, when he unsheathes his knife once more out of its holster on his belt.

He blindly reaches back for her with his other hand, catching her arm and lets his hand slide down to her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, because he can hear the panic in her labored breathing alone.

Jax still hangs onto that small glimmer of hope that it's just someone from the Club coming to check out the place, or an CPD deputy coming back to check up on things after maybe a neighbor had called, or maybe it was Opie, having caught wind that something was up and had parked down the road out of sight. 

All of these different scenarios rush through his mind, but they are all shattered when the person in question finally steps into the living room and comes into - albeit obscured - view. 

Even in the darkness of the house, it is easy to tell that it is neither Ope, nor a cop, nor a Son. The guy is playing it smarter and is wearing a mask over his face this time, but still leaving only one other option in Jax's mind. 

Jax can feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins at full force at the thought that this was not only the guy that has attacked Tara earlier, but he very well be the guy that has already brutalized and murdered four other women in Charming over the last couple of weeks. The implication sickens him to his stomach, because it means that he will surely stop at nothing to silence the only person who could identify him, which meant Tara.

Jax holds his breath, watching the guy as best as he can through the small gap between door and doorframe. Watches as he looks about the place, carefully stepping over some of the wreckage he'd left the place in earlier, when he starts heading towards the dining room, directly bypassing them in just a handful of moments.

In a split-second, Jax makes the decision that they can't just stand here like sitting ducks, waiting to be discovered and slaughtered. So he knows he'd have to jump the guy should he even look like he is about to open this closet door. 

And just when it seems like that is going to happen, the phone finally rings, startling and causing the man to spin around in the direction of the sound, and with it giving Jax the upper hand and opportunity to catch him off guard. So Jax quickly pushes the door open and charges at him at full force, causing both of them to tumble to the ground.

The phone continues ringing while Tara stays hidden in the darkness of the closet, scared frozen in place for a moment, while she watches in horror as the fight breaks out. They punch each other, taking turns, blow after blow, and every time she thinks Jax has gained the upper hand, the guy somehow makes a comeback and manages to pummel Jax just as badly in return. 

She finally snaps out of it, starts scanning the floor for Jax's knife, because somewhere it got lost in the scuffle, and when she can't see it, she looks around for anything she could use as a weapon instead, and takes note of her father's bag of golf clubs leaning in the corner next to her. So she quickly pulls one out and emerges from the closet, holding it with two hands as if it was a baseball bat, ready to take a swing to come to Jax's aid.

The phone stops ringing just when the intruder realizes her presents and turns her way, but to her dismay he successfully dodges the swing she takes at him with the golf club in her hand. But it's enough of a distraction to give Jax the chance to gain the upper hand again, he swiftly kicks the guy in the back of his legs, causing him to fall to his knees, then wraps his arm around his neck in a chokehold, squeezing with everything he's got while the guy keeps struggling against him, clawing at Jax's arms in a desperate fight for air for several long minutes. 

Tara stands there, golf club still in hand, ready to take another swing should the guys make yet another comeback, but then his eyes roll into the back of his head and he jerks for a second before he finally passes out. She stumbles back onto the couch, still shaking like a leaf, but so relieved that this is finally over. 

Jax is coughing uncontrollably for a moment as he struggles back to his own feet and comes to a stand, leaving the passed out guy laying on the living room floor, he steps in front of her. He's still breathing so fast and labored, trying hard to catch his own breath as he's crouching down right in front of her, to meet her eyes. 

Tara shakes her head to herself, somewhere lost between wanting to break down crying and wanting to laugh, and even though he's the one looking like a bloody and beaten mess, Jax's voice sounds full of concern for her when he asks. "Are you alright, darlin'?"

Is this real? Did Jackson Teller just safe my life?

X

Author's Note: I was just so motivated to write the next chapter for this story, that I just couldn't help myself. So here it is. Hope you guys like it and leave me a few words about it. Thank you.


	3. Catch a grenade for her

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

"Tara? Tara?" Jax snaps his fingers in front of her face in a desperate attempt to get the girl to acknowledge him or his questions, and to his relief it finally works. There's recognition in her green eyes staring back into his blue ones, and she finally allows him take the golf club she was still clutching for dear life from her hands, putting it aside.

"I'm so sorry." Tara attempts a faint little apologetic smile when she answers him, not entirely sure what she's sorry for, but it seems like the right thing to say considering Jax current state, which is a result from him protecting her. He's all roughed up, bleeding, and not just his face, but there's a good sized cut on his arm, too. He saved her life, and took one hell of a beating for her while doing so. She still can't believe that this really just happened.

"Do you have a rope, or duct tape, or something?" Jax asks with obvious urgency in his voice, nodding towards her still unconscious attacker on the floor. "We gotta tie him up before he wakes up again."

"Right. Um ... yes." Tara finally really snaps out of her moment of shock, and Jax steps back to get out of her way, but reaches out to steady her when she struggles to come to a stand on wobbly legs at first. "In ... in the garage, I'll get it." She steps around the guy and over the newly added mess of broken knickknacks, knocked over and broken furnishings, and hurries down the hallway that leads to the garage.

Jax flicks on the lights and looks around the floor, spots the handle of his knife sticking out amongst the mess, swiping both sides of the blade over his jeans to wipe away any debris, mostly the smear of his own blood, but he doesn't holster it again. 

He just leans back against the wall and keeps watch over the guy, but this time he knows better and won't hesitate to use the knife with its intended purpose should the guy come back around before he's got a chance to restrain him.

Suddenly there's a horn honking out front impatiently, no doubt that it's Ope, but of course in the same instant the phone begins to ring, too, so Jax answers it instead. He doesn't waste a second, gets straight to the point and explains everything as quickly and as calmly as he can to Otto, and hangs up the phone just when Tara steps back into the room with a rope and a roll of duct tape in hand.

"I think Ope's out front." Jax says, nodding towards the front door even though he's sure she's heard the honking too, before he crouches down, rolling the guy to his side and starts tying his hands behind his back. "The Club is on the way, too." He adds without looking up at her, focuses on the task at hand instead.

"Okay." Tara replies, and hurriedly makes her way to the front door, but there's a loud knock already that's startling her before she can even unlock and pull it open.

"I've been out here for five minutes, what the hell is taken you guys so -" Opie starts with a rant, but his words stop abruptly when he sees the look in Tara's eyes, dares a step inside the house, and sees what Jax is doing. "Oh fuck." All color drains from his face at once when the realization hits him what has happened.

He swipes his hand down his clean shaven face, his eyes flicking back and forth, between a beaten bloody Jax , the unconscious guy, Tara and the mess all around them. He finally steps all the way in, hastily shutting the door behind him with a bang, and his eyes land back on her, looking her up and down. "Are you alright?" After all, they only had one job tonight. Keep the girl safe!

At first Tara's not sure how to answer that, because yes, Jax saved her, but no, she is not alright at all. 'I don't know' is on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn't want to overcomplicate things, so she simply nods her head for now, "Yeah, Jax saved me." Even as the words slip out of her mouth for the first time, she still can't believe they're true ... like how has it even come to this? How has this become her life?

Opie seems placated by her fake reassurance and steps around her to quickly give his best friend a hand. She follows him, steps closer too, lost in her own thoughts, and reliving everything while she listens to Jax filling Opie in on everything that has happened in his own rather colorful words.

They have his hands securely tied behind his back when they finally decide to pull off his mask, both giving Tara a look now, and she confirms with just a nod that it is in fact the guy that has attacked her a couple of hours ago. Just then, the guy begins to stir, there's movement behind his closed eyelids, Opie quickly rolls him all the way onto his stomach before the guy can regain full consciousness again, and begins to hogtie his feet, too, and as Tara watches him do so she can't help but wonder where either one of them has learned how to do that so quickly and efficiently. 

That thought is what's finally taking her out of her own much darker thoughts, bringing her really back to the here and now, and all she knows is that she doesn't want to be here when this man wakes up, doesn't want to hear his voice or have his eyes meet hers again. She's seen enough of him for a lifetime.

She looks around the room in a sudden rush of panic again, when her eyes finally take in Jax's face and his injuries, more visible now that the lights are back on. She can't help but feel guilty for what has happened, but also sees it for the opportunity or reason she needs to excuse herself away from this room and this horrible, horrible man laying by her feet.

"Jax, you're bleeding." She states the obvious out loud, and both Opie's and Jax's eyes flicker down to the pretty deep cut on Jax's arm. His once white t-shirt is stained deep red in several places, and red streaks of blood have trickled down every which way on his arm since he hasn't kept it still yet, nor has tried to stop the bleeding in any way.

Tara sidesteps fast around the guy on the ground, tugging on Jax's other arm, trying to get his full attention which is back on their hostage on the floor, too. "We should try to clean that up, my dad's got a first aid kit in the bathroom. Come on." 

Jax looks at Ope, a silent question in his eyes, and Opie just nods in agreement, "Go, I got this. You're getting blood everywhere." 

"Yeah, okay." Jax agrees, glancing down at his bloodied arm once more, and follows Tara along to the bathroom near her father's bedroom.

Tara nods towards the toilet, and Jax closes the lid and takes a seat watching her pull a clean towel from the shelf, before she turns and stops short, suddenly unsure where to even start to clean him up because he's such a mess. 

"Here." She holds out the towel, and Jax takes it rather reluctantly, wondering himself if she's alright with him getting it all bloody, but she answers his unspoken question when she adds, "You should press it to your cut, you know, to stop the bleeding."

"Thanks." He nods his head, and now that the imminent danger is contained, the worst behind them, for the first time tonight he's actually taking her in, really seeing her, and how amidst all this craziness she manages to not only keep it all together, but to look so goddamn hot while doing so. With no makeup, tousled wild looking hair and red rimmed eyes and all.

He presses the towel to his wound on his forearm, hisses when the pain suddenly begins to faze him, and closes his eyes when he shakes his head to himself, in the most literal sense of the word as he's trying to shake his unexpected thoughts about her out of his mind, and it works, but only for a fleeting moment.

All those thoughts come rushing right back when he opens his eyes again. She's slightly bend over, looking through the one tall cabinet for what he presumes is the first aid kit, and despite knowing how fucked up it is for him to do so under the circumstances, he can't help himself but let his eyes roam over her, head to toe, curves and all. 

He's definitely noticed her before, more times than he could count in the past. With her long dark hair and contrasting fair skin, those moss green eyes and pouty red lips, and not to forget about that hourglass figure she has, Tara Knowles was hard to miss anyplace she went. 

So yeah, she's caught his eyes plenty of times over the last year or two, whether it was in the halls of Charming high, at a random house party, or someplace else. But every time he's seen her, she'd been surrounded with her own group of friends, her own little clique, sometimes even in the arms of a guy here or there. She just ran in different circles as him and Ope and the guys and gals they usually hung around.

But now, now that the adrenaline was slowly beginning to fade away, and instead the enormity of everything that has happened, everything that could've happened to them here tonight is starting to really sink in, it somehow changes everything. She's here and he's here too, there's a connection between them now, he can practically feel it, it's crackling around them, like electricity in the air, or at least it is for him.

Somehow they've gone from barely knowing each other to this, this odd sense of belonging around her, a feeling he can't even begin to make sense of. Him and her, in her house, in her father's bathroom, bleeding and hurt, but also confused and incredibly attracted to the girl that's now come to a stand before him, a bottle of rubbing alcohol in one hand and a first aid kit in the other, looking rather expectantly down at him, when he suddenly realizes that she must've said something that he has missed.

"Sorry, what?" Jax asks out loud, feeling a bit like an idiot for having been so caught up in his own thoughts that he must've drowned out her words completely.

But Tara smiles a little shy herself, "I said I don't even know where to start with you."

"Right." Jax nods, but then is looking down at his arm that's slowly starting to bleed through the towel by now.

"Okay." She says following his gaze, lets out a heavy sigh, then sets everything down on the counter beside them. "I think you should put more pressure on that." She says before her hands cover his over the towel on his cut, and he bites back the pain that it inflicts when she does so. 

"Yeah, okay." He agrees instead, pressing it harder to his wound, while she quickly washes his blood off her hands. She then rifles through the first aid kit, finds some gauze, quickly douses it in alcohol and tips his chin up before she carefully starts to clean up the cuts on his face now.

"Maybe we should call the cops now, or at least call an ambulance for you, 'cause I think your arm is gonna need stitches." She suddenly meets his eyes when she voices her thoughts out loud, but Jax pulls away for a second and shakes his head in disagreement.

"No, I'll be fine. The guys should be here any minute, and one of my uncles was a medic in the military, he can stitch me up. No worries." Jax reassures her before he holds still again so she can continue to clean up the cuts and scrapes on his face.

And as if on cue, they can hear a sudden commotion coming from the front of the house, it's clear the Club has arrived, his uncles are here. Jax is starting to get up to greet and meet them, wants to explain what happened in more detail than earlier on the phone, when Tara's hand is on his shoulder, pushing him back down to sit again. "Hold up, we're not finished here."

But before Jax can even protest, there's already an old familiar voice sounding off. "Jeazus Christ, Jackie." His uncle Chibs appears in the open door and curses out loud up on seeing him, "You look like shit, kid." His voice is loud for how small the room is, and he's speaking with his thick Scottish accent that can't be missed.

"Chibs." Jax says in greeting, and Tara just nods in the direction at the older man when he steps up next to her. 

She remembers meeting him earlier tonight in Piney's home, the scars on his face made him stand out to her, yet he was rather quiet then, but now seems much more lively when he tilts Jax's face to the side to get a better look at his injuries. Then he pulls the towel from his arm to get a good look at that as well, before he turns his attention to the teenage girl beside him. "What 'bout you? Are you hurt too, lass?" He's speaking so fast and with such a heavy accent, that she almost doesn't catch his meaning.

"I'm fine." She replies, because all her aches are just bruises from earlier, nothing that requires medical attention or possibly stitches like Jax.

"Good, good." He replies content that the girl is alright, but then his eyes land on Jax's arm wound again instead. "I'm gonna need to stitch that for ya'. This one's gonna leave a scar." He says but doesn't give Jax even a chance to reply before he turns his attention to Tara beside him, "You've got a sewing kit?" He makes a stitching motion with his hand, "You know, a needle and threat?"

Tara nods, "Yeah, I'll go get it." And with one last look at Jax, she turns and disappears from the room, giving Jax the quick opportunity to tell Chibs what happened here tonight.

X

Tara watches in awe as the Scot pours rubbing alcohol over the black nylon threat, then pulls the bag of ice from Jax's arm and begins to stitch him up calm and methodically. Not only is she impressed by the rather rough looking man's medical skills, but also by Jax, and how well he's handling being patched up under these circumstances. 

Jax's head is turned away, his thoughts focused elsewhere, where exactly she's not sure, but he's brave, much braver than she'd be, considering his arm can't be all that numb from just holding a bag of ice to it, but he doesn't even seem to flinch while he's being sewn up right here in her father's bathroom of all places.

When he's finished, he cleans and bandages Jax's arm up, makes it look very nice and neat, like it was done in a hospital after all, and Tara would be lying if she said she wasn't thoroughly impressed by the older man's calmness and medical expertise tonight. 

She herself wants to be a doctor, it's been a career path she's just recently decided on for herself, and it's still too new that she's not really comfortable sharing that with anyone just yet. 

The only people she's told so far are her father and her best friend, no one else knows, not even the overzealous guidance counselor at Charming High, but for a moment she almost wants to speak of it, wants to say the words out loud, and pick this man's brain for his thoughts on the matter as if it could sway her one way or another. She doesn't though, just clears away the medical supplies, the trash and throws away the bloodied towel, so her father doesn't find it when he's coming home and gets worried for no reason.

X

To say that Jax is confused, and pissed off even, when the Club decides to call Charming PD after all, would be an understatement. He'd tried so hard to keep Tara from calling the police, that he can't help but feel downright stupid now when both Tara and him are brought into different rooms of the house by two deputies, to give their statements separately.

The rest of the evening goes by in a bit of a blur for Tara. Charming PD arrests the guy and brings him down to the station, Opie and Jax get their asses handed to them by the Club, Piney being the loudest and meanest, while she waits in her room, feeling downright out of place in her own home at the moment. 

On one hand she feels incredibly bad for the two boys getting chewed out because of her, all because she wanted to come back here, but on the other hand she's also relieved that the guy's been caught and behind bars, and no longer out there roaming the streets of Charming.

And then everyone eventually leaves, the cops, the Club members, and last but not least she's locking up the house and climbs back into Piney's truck with Jax and Opie right beside her. 

She could've stayed at her own place, now that the guy is caught, and for the first moments of the ride to Opie's house she wonders if she should have, because of the sudden angry vibe she's getting from the boys on either side of her.

"I'm really sorry." She suddenly blurts out, clutching her backpack to her, looking from Opie to Jax when they turn their attention to her for the first time since they've started driving. "I didn't mean for you guys to get in trouble. I know it's all my fault." She adds, because it's the truth. If she hadn't pushed, practically forced their hands to let her stop by her house, none of this would have happened.

"No reason to be sorry, darlin'." Jax is the first to reply and reaches out for her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and it's an odd gesture she thinks for a boy his age, but then again, if she's learned anything tonight, it's that Jax isn't really who she thought he was at all, nor does he act much like other boys his age, or at least he hasn't tonight.

Opie clears his throat, interrupting her and Jax's little moment, unintentional or not, with his angry outburst. "My old man's so full of shit." It's short and straight to the point, and he doesn't elaborate at first, and neither does Jax.

Jax just nods his head in agreement, "Yeah, he is. They're all fucking full of it."

The silence stretches on, until Tara can't take it anymore, can't hold her tongue, "What do you mean?"

Opie pulls into his driveway, the house is dark, Piney's Harley nowhere in sight when he cuts the engine and turns his attention wholeheartedly to her, "If things hadn't played out the way they did, that guy would still be out there right now, going after you, or after another girl, but instead we caught him."

"We?" Jax scoffs out loud, and he shoots Opie a look.

"Whatever, man, you know what I fucking mean." Opie replies, and meets Jax's eyes, who now nods in agreement, too, and to Tara's relief she realizes they're not mad at her after all, but rather how the Club and Piney had reacted and handled the situation after they'd arrived.

But then the sound of a motorcycle echoes through the street, before the Harley quickly pulls into the driveway beside them, coming to a sudden stop, yet to everyone's surprise, it's not Piney, but Chibs instead. 

"Let's talk." He says after cutting the engine, and nods towards the house, dismounting his bike and unbuckling his helmet, while Opie and Jax share a confused look before the three of them climb out of the truck to follow the biker inside.

X

Tara's in the kitchen, reheating a slice of pizza in the microwave, and she can't decide if it's a good or a bad thing that Chibs, Jax and Opie have disappeared in Opie's bedroom to have this conversation without her, in hushed voices behind a closed door.

She doesn't really understand what's going on now, what this argument is about. All she knows is that the guy who tried to go after her is behind bars tonight, that she is safe here, and that by this time tomorrow her father will be back and her life will return back to normal once again.

So she sits, waits and even though she's still not hungry, she picks at her slice of pizza, trying to eat something, while she hopes that the boys will keep her company again soon, because being left to her own thoughts wasn't the best idea at the moment. She welcomes the distraction of their presence instead.

X

Opie just shakes his head, and Jax is practically fuming, watching Chibs light up a cigarette to calm his own nerves, before the older man offers his pack to the both of them, which the boys take him up on despite their current disagreement.

Jax lights up his cigarette and takes a long drag, shaking his head in disgust, before he exhales the fumes from his lungs again, "She's gonna have to appear in court, tell the whole fucking world what he did ... or tried to do." Then he scoffs when it suddenly dawns on him, "Fuck, I'm gonna have to, too. My mom's gonna lose her fucking shit, man."

"What about bail?" Opie suddenly pipes in, looking from Jax to Chibs. "How does that work? Is that fucker gonna get out on bail?"

Chibs shakes his head, looking from one boy to the other, his voice still rather hushed, not wanting the girl down the hall to overhear what was being said, "It won't come to that, boys."

"Meaning what?" Jax's shrugging his shoulders, not understanding why the Club made the call to hand the guy over to Charming PD instead of taking care of the problem themselves. "You should've killed him when you had the chance." He blurts out the words in a loud whisper, anger flashing in his eyes, but he's caught off guard when Chibs suddenly grabs him by his still blood stained shirt and roughly throws him against the wall. So hard that a picture frame falls to the carpet, but it doesn't break.

"You've got in a brawl tonight, got a few good licks in, got that adrenaline pumping, gettin' your cock hard, and suddenly you wanna go 'round killin' people, huh?" Chibs is just as pissed now as Jax had been a moment ago, maybe even more so. 

He jolts the teenage boy hard against the wall again, barely able to reign in his temper, "You think takin' a man's life's that easy? Jeazus Christ, you've got no idea what the hell you're talking about, kid ... and I hope neither one of ya' ever will."

Chibs finally lets go of Jax, leaving the teenager looking back at him in confusion and also newly brewing anger, but he knows better than to say anything else, instead just watches as the Scot calms down again himself.

Chibs shakes his head again, these kids just don't understand that this is all he is able to tell them, his voice sounding eerily constrained, "That bastard will be transferred to County by tomorrow morning, the little lass is safe, she won't have to testify in court, and neither won't you, Jackie ... but you've gotta let this go, both of ya', keep ya' mouths shut, especially in front of the girl. You gotta let it play out. It's Club business now, yeah? Understand?"

His eyes flicker back and forth between the two boys, waiting for their reply, their agreement, a sign that they understand what he's trying to tell them between the lines, which he receives with just a nod from the both of them, yet a still angry scowl looking back at him as well. 

X

It seems like every light in the house is on when Tara wakes up and stumbles sleepily out of Opie's bedroom in the middle of the night. She blinks a few times trying to adjust to the light now, momentarily listening if she can hear Jax and Opie still talking in the living room down the hall, but it's all quiet, she can't even hear the TV, and she figures they've finally fallen asleep, too.

She rubs the sleep out of her eyes for a second, blindly reaching and turning the doorknob with her other hand, and pushes the bathroom door open. But she's hit with a cloud of hot steam, taking her by surprise when she looks up just as Jax tugs a towel around his waist. "Oh shit, sorry." She mumbles out the words, hasn't expected anyone to be in here, let alone to find him practically naked, and quickly steps back out, pulling the door closed again, too.

Wow, she can't help the blush rising in her cheeks when she hurries back into Opie's room, the image of him half-naked still fresh in her mind. Of course she thought of Jax as good looking, you'd have to be blind to not think of him that way, but truthfully so were plenty of other guys that she knew, some of whom she'd dated, yet she can't think of anyone looking quite as hot as he just did. 

Still, after he'd so heroically saved her and now seeing him in nothing but a towel brought a whole other array of thoughts about him to the surface, and she'd be lying if she said she isn't surprised herself by the way she is starting to feel and think about him. This isn't supposed to happen, she isn't suppose to fall for someone like Jackson Teller.

She tries to shake the image and thoughts of him from her mind, closing her eyes and hopes to fall back asleep, but moments later there's a sudden knock on the door, jolting her fully awake yet again. 

"Yeah?" She answers, quickly sitting up in bed, clutching the comforter to her chest like a shield of armor, when the door creaks open and the light from the hallway lights up the room around her.

"I was wondering, since you're up, mind giving me a hand?" Jax asks, donning nothing but a pair of sweats now, searching her face from his spot in the door.

"Um ... sure, with what?" She asks, loosening the tight grip on the blanket, searching his face in return, but with the light behind him like this, his whole frame is nothing but a large outline of a man looming in the doorframe.

"Changing my bandage." He points to his arm. "Tried not to get it wet, but I did."

"Oh, ... yeah, I can help with that." She folds back the comforter and climbs out of bed, falling in step behind him as they walk quietly down the hall, back to the bathroom.

He sits down on the edge of the bathtub this time, and even though she avoids meeting his eyes, she can feel them watching her every move with intense scrutiny. He watches her unravel the wet bandage from his arm, carefully reapply some of the ointment Chibs had told him to use over the stitches, before she wraps another clean and dry bandage around the wound again. 

"I'm sorry you got hurt because of me." She suddenly says, while she's fastening the little wrap clips to hold the bandage in place.

"Don't sweat it, darlin', it ain't that bad." He shoots her a smile when she finally looks up from the task at hand and meets his eyes, and really takes in the nice shiner that has already formed around one of his eyes. "Besides, chicks dig scars, right?"

Tara can't help but smile herself at the way he's cocking his head to the side just a smidge, actually looking right at her and waiting for her to answer him. "I don't know, I've never thought about it."

"Hmm." He makes the sound as if he's thinking, or maybe he's agreeing with her, she's not really sure which. He remains seated, while she packs away Piney's first aid kit again, throwing away the old bandage on top of her clothes from earlier last night. 

"Can I ask you something?" He suddenly says, and Tara actually looks over at him and meets his eyes this time before she nods in agreement. 

But he looks away from her now for a moment, second guessing if he should really pry and ask this out loud, before his eyes flicker back up to meet hers and he says, "That guy, when we were fighting, every time I thought I had him, he was like ..." Jax shakes his head for a second, trying to think of the right simile or analogy. "He came back for more, like he's fucking Michael Myers or some shit."

"Yeah?" Tara drawls and looks back at him confused, none of that had sounded like a question.

He runs his hand through his wet hair for a moment, before he looks back at her again. "No offense, darlin', but you weigh what? ... Maybe a hundred pounds soaking wet? How the fuck did you get away from him? How did you fight him off?" The way the expression on her face changes has him instantly regretting the question, but it is too late, it's already out there.

Tara sighs deeply for a moment, folding her arms in front of herself, leaning her hip against the sink, that moment when it happened rushing back to her at full force when she lets herself think back on it. 

She's proud of herself that she manages to answer him in a very level tone of voice, sort of detached from it all when she starts to explain what happened, or rather how it happened. "He knocked me around pretty good, I fought him off as long as I could. Then he was holding me down, but he suddenly let go to ... to undo his pants, so I kicked him, you know, there, as hard as I could, and it was enough to get away and run out the door. Called the cops from my neighbors house." She shrugs her shoulders. "That was pretty much it."

"Jesus Christ." Jax curses under his breath, meeting her eyes again, apologetic, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"It's okay." She shrugs one shoulder again, trying to brush it off like it didn't affect her like it did, but he can see right through her.

He suddenly stands, reaching out for her hand, squeezing it lightly, his thumb running soothingly across her skin, "No, it's not okay, but I'm so glad you got away ... glad that motherfucker's locked up now."

"Yeah." Tara nods her head this time. "Thanks to you." She adds and leans up suddenly, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, before she spins on her heels and heads out the door. "Goodnight, Jax." She tosses back at him over her shoulder, but can't bring herself to actually meet his eyes again now. 

"Goodnight, Tara." He replies solemnly, flicking off the light in the bathroom as he watches her disappear into Opie's room, shutting the door behind her. 

He runs his hand through his hair once more, not just at a loss for words, but also at a loss about how this exchange with her makes him feel.

What is it about her that's got him all worked up? Is it the whole damsel in distress cliché, or what? He shakes his head to himself, not knowing the answer to his own internal questions. All he knows is that there is something different about her, ... and right now that something would have him catch a grenade for her without so much as a second thought!

X

Author's Note: Thanks for the messages and reviews for this story, I'm so glad you all liked it. Not much progress in this chapter yet, but it was needed to get a bit more insight into their current state of mind as teenagers, not the adult versions of Jax and Tara we've come to know and love. So what do you think? Leave me a few words please. Thank you.

P.S. There's a scar on Jax's left forearm that can be seen as early as the pilot episode, and this is how I pictured he got it, just in case anyone was curious.


	4. A boy named Sue

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Tara's awaken by a knock on the bedroom door, and when she finally pries her eyes open, blinking them awake and pulls the sheet back from her face, the sunlight filtering in from the window lets her know it's already morning. Then there's another knock, and she suddenly realizes that she hasn't answered yet, so she does. "Yeah?" She croaks out, her voice sounding still heavy with sleep.

The door slowly creaks open just enough for Jax to partially step inside, his big frame hovering between door and doorframe, smiling sweetly at her when he speaks, "Hey, ... morning." He's dressed in clean clothes, jeans and another white t-shirt, but his hair looks like a adorable mess, and he's got several abrasions on his face, and a very prominent shiner around his right eye, that can't be missed. 

"Morning." She replies sitting up, taking in his battered appearance with sorrowful eyes. A flash of guilt overcomes her at the sight of him, along with a tinge of heat when she suddenly remembers the sight of him in the bathroom last night. But then she can't help raising her hand to cover her mouth when she can't stop the sudden yawn from escaping her.

"Piney's making breakfast. Told me to wake you up." Jax says, another sweet smile gracing his lips as he takes her in with a scrutinizing gaze now, that makes Tara want to hide behind the sheets once more.

She nods, embarrassed by her thoughts and wonders for a second how obvious they show on her face. But now that she's awake the smell of bacon is unmistakable in the air, and unlike last night, she actually is starting to feel a little hungry now, and hopes her stomach won't start to growl loudly any second now and embarrass her even further, "Okay, thanks. I'll get dressed real quick."

"Alright." Jax shoots her another sweet smile, before he pulls the door shut behind him again and heads back towards the kitchen.

X

Opie and Jax are already sitting at the kitchen table, Piney's standing at the stove, cracking another egg into the pan in front of him, when he glances over his shoulder as she comes into view in the doorframe. 

"Good morning, sweetheart. Have a seat." He smiles sweetly at the younger girl, before he returns his attention back to the pans on the stove in front of him.

"Morning." Tara replies, looking from Piney to the boys at the table, already eating.

"Morning." Opie replies too, but Jax only nods in greeting this time, his mouth full with food, and pulls the chair beside him out for her to take a seat in, which she does.

"Did you sleep alright?" Piney's looking back at her over his shoulder once more, spatula in hand, and when Tara nods her head in reply, he asks, "Hope you like your eggs scrambled, that's about all I can do."

"Yeah, scrambled is fine." She replies, and sits rather awkwardly amongst the boys, her hands folded in her lap, unsure of what to do with herself for a moment. 

She can't help but think once more about how strange to be sitting here, to have spend the night here, to be having breakfast with the Winston's and Jax as if nothing bad had happened last night. It's utterly surreal ... and she's still trying so hard to sort out her feeling about everything that has happened. There's still lingering fear when she thinks back on the guy that attacked her, and then there's gratitude, and even small butterflies in her stomach when she dares a sideway glance at Jax, but most of all, for the moment she feels safe again, and that's a feeling she's decided she'll never take for granted ever again.

"Want something to drink? Coffee, a glass of milk, some orange juice?" Piney asks, then looks back at her once more, taking her out of her thoughts. "Or a nice cold beer?" His face split in half with a grin, as if he'd just finished telling a elaborate joke.

"A glass of milk sounds good." She replies, and before she can say anything else, Piney's backhanded Opie in the back of his head, not hard at all, but just enough to get his attention, and barks out the order. "Make yourself useful, boy, and get the girl some milk."

Tara's quickly getting up herself, feeling bad for Opie, "I can get it myself."

But Jax is already on his feet, too, before Opie even has a chance to react, "Sit, darlin', I got it." And he's already walking over to the dishwasher, getting a clean glass out for her, before he grabs the carton of milk from the counter near Piney and pours her a glass.

"Thanks." Tara smiles sweetly back at him when he hands it to her, and Jax smiles just as sweetly in return, while Opie's rolling his eyes at the exchange, without either one of them even taking notice.

Piney finally steps up to the table and places a plate full of eggs and bacon right in front of her, "Here, eat up." He's quick to pull a fork from the cutlery drawer and hands that to her as well, before he points with his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the stove right behind him. "There's plenty more, so don't be shy."

"Thank you." Tara replies, looking down at her full plate, before she glances back up at the much older man, "This is probably more than I can eat already."

"You're too scrawny, little girl, we gotta beef you up a bit." Piney replies teasingly, and wipes his hands on a kitchen rag, taking his time when he does so, and gives her a chance to take a few bites, before he speaks up again, "So I talked to your old man earlier, he's catching a flight out around eleven this morning, and he should be back later this afternoon. I've got some things to take care of today, but you're welcome to stay here until he's back, or ... well, whatever you wanna do, sweetheart."

Tara quickly swallows the bite, and clears her throat, picking with her fork at the eggs on her plate, "Thanks, I'll probably just go home, besides, I gotta go to work later this afternoon. But ... well, I just wanted to say I appreciate everything you've done for me." She glances up at Piney, but then looks to Opie and last at Jax, before she adds, "All of you."

"You're welcome." Piney replies, but clears his throat before he can't stop himself from asking, "Are you sure you wanna go to work today though? Under the circumstances, I bet they, whoever you're working for would understand it if you didn't feel up to it. I mean, -."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Tara interrupts him. "By now I'm sure all of Charming's already heard about what happened, so if I don't show up, they're gonna assume I'm on my deathbed, so ..." She cracks a smile, and so does everyone else in the room, because the girl's got a very valid point. "So the sooner I show my face, the less gossip I'll have to deal with later on, you know."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Piney answers, nodding in agreement. "Good for you, sweetheart, good for you."

X

Opie raises his hand in a casual wave, and Jax throws up the peace sign, just two fingers, in her direction before Tara turns at last and disappears inside her home, closing the door behind her in a rush.

Opie puts the truck back in drive, starts pulling away from the curb, before he finally lights the cigarette that's already hanging from his mouth, and takes a long slow drag. 

They drive on in complete silence for another couple of minutes, just smoking away, each with their own little agenda running through their minds. 

Jax doesn't want to come off as too eager or too obvious, but after a while he just can't bite his tongue another moment longer. "So what's the deal with you and her?" He flicks the ash off his cigarette out the open window, looking over at his friend, trying his hardest to come off and sounding indifferent, yet an almost accusatory glare in his eyes is giving him away.

Opie's looking away from the road just long enough to meet Jax's eyes, shooting him a puzzled look in return. "What deal?"

"Tara." Jax clarifies, in case it wasn't clear who he was talking about. "She seems pretty comfortable around your house, around Piney and you. I'm just surprised you never mentioned her?" Jax glances back at Opie again, trying to read the expression on his face, to get more insight before his friend even bothers to reply out loud with words.

"I did mention her." Opie rebuts without missing a beat, scrunching his eyebrows together in another expression of confusion. "I told you about her ... a bunch of times, actually."

"Bullshit." Jax quips back just as quick, because he might miss a small detail sometimes when Ope's telling him shit, but he'd definitely remember if his best friend had told him about Tara Knowles, Charming high cheerleader, hanging out at his house.

Opie just scoffs, "Yeah, I told you that my dad likes to drink with a neighbor from a few streets over, trading war-stories and shit, and that his kid's coming by to pick him up and hangs out sometimes."

Now Jax realizes that he had in fact heard Opie say something like that every now and then, but still, it seems like his best friend had intentionally left the most important details about all of that conveniently to himself.   
"His kid?" Jax sends him a 'are-you-bullshitting-me' look. "You just left out the part where 'his kid' happens to be a hot chick that goes to Charming High with us?"

At that Opie can't help the little smirk that appears on his face, because Jax wasn't completely wrong about what he was implying and accusing him of. Because, yeah, he had worded it just so that Jax wouldn't get a clue about who he's been hanging out with from time to time. 

Truth be told, she wasn't just hot, she was nice, and funny, and smart, so yeah, he'd wanted to get to know her, figure out if there was maybe a spark or something between them that would warrant to pursue her further, close the deal, without Jax's presence and interference. 

So Opie's remaining quiet, tries his best to bite back the smirk and is not answering his friend just yet, instead he pulls the truck into the parking lot of the small family owned video rental place, and finds them a spot to park. 

His silence, along with his facial expression however speaks volumes to Jax. "So you like her? That's why you've kept her hanging out with you to yourself?" Jax asks out loud, having put two and two together without Opie having to actually explain. It all made sense, can't really blame him, because with a girl looking like that, he might've done the same thing if roles had been reversed.

Although the thought of Opie hooking up with her, or worse, having already hooked up with her, doesn't sit well with him at all. At least not after all these unusual feelings he couldn't explain about her, that somehow got stirred up in him last night. He'd found himself lying awake on the couch half the night because of her, and said feelings about her.

"It's not like that." Opie suddenly replies, much to Jax's surprise, looking over at him now that he's cut the engine to the truck, finishing off the last of his smoke before they were going to head inside. "I was just trying to see if there was something, you know, ... but turns out there isn't." He adds rather cryptically, but the meaning of his words isn't missed by Jax.

"You sure about that?" Jax gives him a disbelieving look, even though it takes everything he's got to not crack a smile at the tiny spark of hope that Opie's words have ignited in his chest. "She was definitely more into you than me." He reluctantly admits out loud, because as much as he feels something for her, he'll step aside if he has to, won't come between Opie and his girl if there is more to it after all.

Opie just shakes his head, but bites back the little chuckle Jax's words actually bring out of him. "She just happens to know me, and doesn't know you from Adam. Don't take it so fucking personal, bro." He shoots Jax a little grin now, before he flicks his extinguished stub out the window. "Besides, I'm pretty sure she's got a boyfriend." A memory of seeing her walking hand in hand with one of the jocks down the hallways of Charming High pop into his mind.

"No, she doesn't." Jax replies, shaking his head, and Opie's giving him a questioning look, but before he can ask how Jax would know that, he's already elaborating. "If you were a girl, wouldn't you have called your boyfriend after what happened last night? The only person she called was her old man, and her best friend, some chick named Emma, who's apparently out of town for another week and a half." He really hadn't intentionally been eavesdropping, but while Ope was in the shower, and she'd been on the phone in the kitchen, he couldn't help overhear the gist of her phone calls even if he'd tried not to listen in.

"That's true." Opie nods in agreement, but then raises his eyebrows at Jax, and takes in the battered face of his before he adds, gesturing about Jax's face. "But you didn't call your girl after what happened last night either, just your mom."

"Right." Jax quips back, and swipes his hand down his bruised face, and actually looks ashamed at the mentioning of his girlfriend, because in all the craziness of last night, she'd been the furthest thing from his mind. "Fuck." He adds, cursing under his breath, flicking the rest of his cigarette out the window, but tries to ignore the shit-eating-grin on Opie's face, who was obviously enjoying his sudden realization about his already existing relationship.

"Man, you must've got it bad for Tara, if Amy has completely slipped your mind." Opie can't hold back, actually laughs out loud at his own words, before he pulls the key from the ignition, and looks over at Jax once more, "Maybe it's time to cut her loose." 

"I know." Jax admits his agreement, hanging his head in shame, because he knows his feelings for Amy have not been what a guy should be feeling for his girlfriend for quite some time now. Hell, maybe he'd never really felt towards her like he was suppose to, he realized that now with all these new emotions whenever his mind went back to Tara. "I will." He vows suddenly, and he means it, there was no reason to drag her along in this nonexistent relationship.

They both get out of the truck, and start heading towards the entrance of the little store, when Opie turns his attention to Jax once more and says, "By the way, you've gotta cut out all that 'darling' bullshit with Tara, she's not into that."

"I don't think she minds." Jax answers in reply, just as they reach the door.

"Yeah, she does." Opie nods his head when he's pulling the door open for them, "Because she knows you call every girl in school that, trust me, bro, she fucking minds."

X

Three days later

Gemma knocks on her son's bedroom door, but doesn't really give him a chance to extend an invite, merely waits a few seconds before she's barging through the door, a laundry basket full of folded clothes in her hands.

She still catches him waving his hand through the air trying to fan away the cloud of smoke around him, and can't help herself but lets out a little laugh, "Awe, that's sweet."

"What's that?" Jax asks, taking the bait, sitting up with his back against his headboard, a couple of books scattered on the bed around him.

"You ..." She says, giving him a sweet look, when she puts the basket down at the foot of the bed, and begins looking through it, "... still trying to keep up this ridiculous charade about smoking, when this room smells like a cum-rag's being used as an ashtray."

Jax just shakes his head at his mother's observation, obviously it wasn't true, he had an actual ashtray hidden away in his nightstand, but still a little grin's tugging on his lips, because what was he suppose to reply to something like that coming from his mother's mouth.

Gemma turns and starts to put his clothes up for him, opening and closing the corresponding dresser drawers while she does so, before she looks back at him over her shoulder, "I mean, would it kill you to open up a window in here every once in a while, let some fresh air in?"

"Last time I was airing out my room, I got yelled at about the AC running nonstop." He's quick with a reply this time, but he already knows he won't win this one either.

Gemma purses her lips at that, giving him a knowing look. "Sneaking out in the middle of the night, and leaving your window wide open hardly constitutes 'airing out my room', smartass." 

He doesn't reply this time, just keeps looking through the pages in the book on his lap, while she finishes up with his clothes, before she turns back around, giving him another long observing look. "Shiner's fading pretty fast." She comments on the fading bruise around his eye, but then further inquires, "How's the arm, the stitches, sweetheart?"

"They itch." He replies without further elaborating, fighting the sudden urge to scratch at them, and is finally looking up from the page and meeting her eyes for a moment.

She steps up next to him, nudging him to scoot over a bit, so she can sit down beside him, "What are you looking at old yearbooks for?" She notes the open page in his lap, then gives the other books a glance, before her focus is back on the page he's currently looking at.

He shrugs his shoulder, "No reason really." He tries to play it off as best as he can, hopes she will buy it and let it go.

"Right." Gemma replies with a hint of sarcasm, before she turns her head and actually meets his eyes, adding with a much heavier dose of sarcasm now, "Let me guess ... you're missing your teachers already, and you're sad that school's out for the summer." But then she quickly smirks, giving him a knowing look, "So what's her name?"

Jax bites back the smirk that's trying to come through, because nothing gets past his mommy dearest, "Tara."

"Ahhhhh." She nods her head knowingly, had already figured as much by the way he'd talked about her when they'd discussed what had happened, but still, Gemma gestures towards his injuries, pointing out the obvious. "The girl that's cause for all this ... damage." 

"Mom." Jax answers in a warning tone, and shakes his head at her. "Ope and I didn't have to go along, so all three of us fucked up, it's not all on her." He gives her a look that conveys just how strongly he feels about that. He's sick and tired of it, really, because this argument had played out a handful of times already since his step-dad Clay and his mother have gotten back in town just yesterday. 

"Yeah, I know." She concedes, knowing already she will not win this fight, and picks up one of the yearbooks beside him, realizing it's from Junior High, she says teasingly, "Trying to see if she was a A-cup with braces? Or maybe if she takes bad pictures?"

The fact that his mother knows him so well bothers him a little, or maybe it's the fact that he comes off as incredibly shallow for thinking that way, for being curious how hot she'd been back then. "No, just curious what she looked like back then." He answers, only partially lying, but his answer isn't juicy enough for his mother, so she puts the older yearbook away, and grabs the more recent one sitting open in his lap from him, putting it down in her own lap instead now.

Gemma's eyes are glancing over the page, before they land on the picture of the girl in question, and begins to give her own assessment over her appearance. "She is pretty cute, good skin, nice hair. Can't really tell if she's got a nice rack from that headshot alone though." 

She studies his face, trying to gauge his reaction to her words, and he's trying his best to come off as indifferent to her comment, but fails miserably, and she can't help but smile a bit at her son's facial expression when she flat out asks him for a response. "No comment on the matter from you, huh?" 

"Nope." Jax answers short and sweet, shaking his head a little, then swipes his hand down his face, trying to wipe away the smile from his lips because his mom was right. Tara is pretty fucking cute, with a nice rack to boot! 

"Huh. Never seen you quite so tongue-tied." Is all Gemma has to say to that, but she's trying to understand why this girl has suddenly sparked such an interest in him, that he'd gone so far as to dig the old yearbooks out just to look her up. "Bet she was pretty grateful to you, saving her life and all?" She gives him a look that conveys the obvious innuendo in her question, her eyebrows raised almost to her hairline, but her lips pulled in a straight line in contradiction.

But Jax knows what she's implying and is quick to clear that up for her, cocks his head to the side a bit when he answers. "Not that grateful, mom, ... she's not like that." God, he wishes she would leave already so he could get another smoke and might actually finish it this time.

"Not like what exactly? Like pretty little Amy?" Gemma replies teasingly, reminding him of his on-again-off-again relationship over the last couple of months, before she hands the book back to him and stands, leaning down to cup his chin with her manicured fingers. "Trust me, honey, if the situation calls for it, they're all like that. Little Miss Tara's no exception, she's nothing special." She quickly kisses his cheek and turns on her heels, grabbing the empty basket from the bed on her way to the door.

But then she suddenly stops and turns towards him, digging in the back pocket of her jeans with her free hand, "I almost forgot, found this in one of your jeans." She tosses him the key, and he catches it with ease in mid-air, looking it over already, when she can't help but satisfy her curiosity, "What's it go to?"

"I dunno, swiped it from Ope's room to mess with him, totally forgot I had it." He lies straight to her face, because he really doesn't want to bring up Tara again when his mom is so close to almost make it out of his room. 

"Don't forget to give it back then. God knows what it goes to, could be Piney's." She urges, shaking her head at their childish behavior, always hiding each other's shit, and finally leaves his room.

X

Jax pulls up to the curb in front of Tara's place in his mom's SUV, because his beater was permanently parked at T-M, until he had the time and money to get it fixed up again. 

For the last three days he's been thinking about checking up on her, been wanting to go see her, and thanks to his mother finding her spare key in his laundry, he finally has found a good enough reason to actually do so. 

But as soon as his eyes land on the front door, he's already on high alert again when he notices that there's no car in the driveway, but the door is slightly ajar, which Tara wouldn't do if she was home alone, nor would she do it if she'd left. 

So he rushes up the drive, tossing the not even halfway finished cigarette to the ground, grinding it out the same instant he's pulling his knife from the holster on his belt, before he takes the step up onto the porch and peeks through the open door, slowly pushing it further open for him to step inside. 

The house is eerily quiet up on entering at first, but he noticed how the living room's been cleaned up. For a second he contemplates calling out for her, but when he hears a noise coming from the other end of the house, the kitchen, he simply decides to follow the sound and check it out for himself instead.

Jax rounds the corner from the dining room, and finds a grown man standing by the cabinets in the kitchen, his broad back is turned towards him. But Jax's heart's already beating out of his chest again, a moment of déjà vu rushing through him when the familiar feeling of adrenaline rising comes back to him, before he confronts the intruder loudly. "What are you doing in here? Who the hell are you?" 

The man turns around almost calmly, a coffee mug in his hand that he's taking a sip from, while he's eyeing the younger man from head to toe, and recognition flashes in his eyes before he smiles just a little. "Who the hell am I?" The guy points a thumb at his own self when he repeats Jax's question. "I'm the guy that's about to whoop your ass, kid, if you don't get that butter knife out of my face."

A look of confusion, mixed with a tinge of anger crosses Jax's face, but before he even has the chance to ask anything else, Tara appears right behind him in the same instant, startling him when she says, "Jax? What are you doing here?" Then looks over to her dad. "Dad?" She shakes her head in confusion, "What the hell's going on?"

"Dad?" Jax repeats in a questioning tone, looking over his shoulder now, right at her, before his eyes land back on the man in front of him, but he can't see any resemblance, not even now that he knows there's suppose to be a relation.

"Yeah, dad. I'm her old man." The man quickly replies, before Tara can chime in again, cracking a smile in amusement at the expression that crosses the blond teenager's face.

Jesus Christ! "Shit." Jax curses, quickly sheathing his knife again, looking back and forth between Tara and her father in obvious embarrassment, his cheeks tinting slightly. "Sorry, I thought ... I saw the front door open, but no car in the drive, and ..." The words die down on his lips, but the meaning is as clear as day. 

Tara's dad can't help but let out a little chuckle at Jax's obvious discomfort, and even Tara can't help but crack a smile too. "Don't sweat it, kid." He holds out his hand for Jax to shake now, "I'm James Knowles, and I gather you're Jax, Jackson Teller, the guy that saved my baby girl the other night?" He voices it like a question, but it isn't really that, rather a statement, before he adds, "My daughter's told me all about you, I guess I owe you a big thank you for what you did."

Jax hesitates for a moment, because up until now no adult has actually bothered to thank him for what he'd done, but he snaps out of it, reaches out and shakes the older man's hand in return, "No problem." It's the best he can think of in response, because it seems too odd to reply with a 'you're welcome' under the circumstances. After having barged in here uninvited, wielding a knife at the man in his own kitchen.

"What are you doing here?" Tara suddenly pipes up, interrupting the little meet-and-greet between her father and her latest crush, after she's stepped up right beside the both of them them now. 

No longer able to hold her tongue when she's found herself wondering why Jackson has decided to stop by her place today. Had he just randomly driven by? Or had he been checking up on her, out of concern? She couldn't help but wonder, because she's hardly been able to keep her mind off of him since they'd parted ways three days ago, so it would be nice to figure out if he felt the same way. Thinking of Jax has become her save haven, the place she went inside her head when she tries to push those scary ugly thoughts away that still overcame her from time to time.

"Right." Jax suddenly remembers why he's actually here, and fishes the key out of his pocket, holding it out to her. "Found this in my laundry, thought you might need it back."

"Oh, that's ... nice of you, but ..." She takes it from him, glancing over at her father for a second, before she turns at the waist and tosses it in the trashcan right behind her, "But my dad had all the locks changed out yesterday, thanks though." She gives him a appreciating smile nonetheless.

"Do you like steak, kid?" James Knowles strikes up another little talk, giving Jax no choice than to pry his eyes away from Tara's sweet smile and those captivating green eyes, to meet her father's eyes instead.

"Sure," Jax nods his head, but asks rhetorically in return. "Who doesn't?"

"Alright, so maybe we'll have you over for dinner some time, bring your folks with you, and I'll fire up the grill, throw a couple of steaks on there, what do you think? It's the least I can do for what you did for my daughter." 

"Yeah, sure." Jax replies without missing a beat. He wouldn't mind one bit getting on the good side of Tara's old man, if that means it'll give him a reason to spend more time over here and be around her. He'll just need to figure out a way to keep Clay and his mom out of the picture, or his plan to get closer to Tara would undoubtedly crash and burn before it hardly had a chance to take flight. 

James pats him heartily on the shoulder, in a fatherly gesture Jax is all too familiar with, from all of his so-called 'uncles'. "Do you drink? You sure as shit look old enough to drink." He adds, giving him another scrutinizing once-over, assessing the over six feet tall young man standing in front of him.

"I told you he goes to my school, dad. He's in my grade, my age." Tara replies in obvious annoyance now before Jax even gets another word in to reply himself. 

"Right. Right." James nods his head, suddenly recalling that his daughter has in fact told him the boy was merely her age. "After what he did for you though, a drink or two won't hurt him, might even put a little hair on his chest." Her father adds jokingly.

But it's obvious that Tara's not the least bit amused, and he just smirks, dimples digging into his cheek, when he watches her fold her arms in front of herself, giving her father a deathly glare that would give his mother a run for her money.   
Then she scoffs, shaking her head at the irony of the situation. "You're unbelievable, dad." She holds two fingers up, the likes resembling that of a peace-sign, and adds, "I swipe two beers from the fridge months ago, and you're still giving me shit about it, but he's allowed to drink?" She nods her head in the direction of Jax, but keeps her eyes trained on her father instead.

Now it actually is her father's turn to scoff, "First off, as your dad it's my job to give you shit about drinking." And then further adds with a heavy dose of sarcasm, "And are you honestly gonna try to convince me that you haven't had a drink since the time you've swiped those beers? Nice try, but I wasn't born yesterday, kiddo."

Tara's stunt for a moment, but then relieved to be saved by the bell, or rather a honking car near the front of the house, and it becomes clear to Jax why the front door had been open in the first place, when James turns towards his daughter and says, "That's my ride, baby girl, I gotta go. Duty calls." He pulls his daughter into his arms, placing a sweet kiss to the top of her head as if they hadn't just argued at all. "Don't wait up, kiddo."

"Bye dad." Tara says in reply, when her father pulls away from her hug.

"Nice to meet you, Jackson." He says once more as he passes by them. "I'll see you around."

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Knowles." Jax replies as he watches after his retrieving form, but once he hears the front door shut with a bang, he turns his attention back to Tara instead.

His eyes taking all of her in now, from the nice fitting pair of jeans, to the bright red crop top, that's revealing most of her midriff. Her hair's in a high ponytail, and if she's wearing any make-up, Jax wouldn't be able to tell, because her complexion looks just flawless from where he was at. It still amazes him just how stunning she manages to look, with what seems to be such minimal effort.

"Do you want something to drink?" Tara asks a little bit awkwardly, suddenly unsure of what to do with herself standing in her own kitchen with none other than Jackson Teller, the boy that has recently begun to occupy her daydreams. 

"I can only offer you something non-alcoholic though. There's not gonna be any hair sprouting on your chest today, Teller." She adds teasingly, returning the smirk that appears on his face with a smirk of her very own. "We've got sodas." She says, shrugging her shoulder at him, "Want a coke?"

"Sure, a coke sounds good." Jax replies, forcing himself to not stare at her so blatantly obvious. 

Suddenly there's some barking right outside the kitchen window that overlooks the back patio, and Tara quickly hands him a chilled can from the fridge, before she says "You can sit if you want, I'll be right back" and disappears out of the kitchen. 

Jax takes a seat on one of the barstools by the island in the middle of the room, opens his can and takes a few quick gulps of the refreshing beverage, before Tara comes back in just as quickly as she had disappeared, but with a big dog following right behind her this time.

"Hey, who are you?" Jax puts his drink down, and starts petting the dog that's come up to him to inspect him with a thorough sniff. He's heavily panting, the tail's wagging nonstop, happily enjoying the attention he's getting from Jax.

"Unbelievable." Tara scoffs, after having watched the interaction between Jax and her oversized mutt. "Bad dog." She finally scowls at him, but it doesn't come out very angry sounding at all. 

She's leaning forward to cup her dogs face with both her hands, forcing the dog to look back up at her for a moment, and in the instant she's unbeknownst giving Jax a view down the front of her shirt. "You're suppose to bark at strangers, not rub against them to get petted, Sue. So much for being a guard dog, you goofy old thing." 

"Your dog's name is Sue?" Jax asks out loud in an attempt to shake the image of her lacy red bra from his mind, when he watches the dog trail around the kitchen behind Tara, and now he really can't hold his tongue on the dogs name any longer. "You do realize that Sue's got fucking nuts the size of tennis balls, right?" Jax shoots her an amused look, his eyebrows raised in obvious question.

Tara rinses the dog's water bowl out at the sink, before she adds more cool fresh water to it, and glances over at Jax now, trying to keep a straight face when she replies, "Really, I hadn't noticed." But then she can't help but let out a little laugh, rolling her eyes a little too, "Of course I know Sue's a he." 

She carefully puts the bowl back to the ground, petting her dog now when he starts to drink as if he's been dying of thirst. "My dad's a big Johnny Cash fan, ... I should count myself lucky he didn't end up naming me Bill or George just for the hell of it." She answers as an explanation, leaning back against the kitchen counter behind her, but Jax is looking even more confused now than he did a few seconds ago, so she adds, "You know, from the song, 'a boy named Sue'?"

"Sorry." Jax shakes his head, "I have no idea what you're talking about, but for what it's worth, I'm glad your name isn't Bill or George either." He shoots her a sweet smile, and winks at her, before he's raising the can of soda up to his lips again just to not get lost in her green eyes again.

She returns his smile with one of her own, before she suddenly comments on his appearance, "Your black eye's almost completely faded, looks much better. How are the stitches?" She adds, questioning out loud, her eyes darting to the bandage on his arm.

Jax glances down at the bandage himself, and replies truthfully, "I think it's healing alright, it's just starting to itch sometimes."

Tara's eyes flicker up to the clock on the wall for just a second, but she instantly frowns when she's looking back at him, "Shit, I gotta get ready for work." Then gives him an apologetic look.

Jax takes the hint, slips off the bar stool, and quickly finishes the rest of his drink. "Sorry, didn't mean to hold you up." Truthfully he wishes he could hold her up for much longer, doesn't want to leave now that he has her completely to himself. But he tosses the empty can in the trashcan on his way out of the kitchen, giving Sue one more pet across the top of his head too.

"You didn't." She replies, and quite honestly wishes she didn't have to work and spend the day getting to know him instead. But she can't, and so she follows him to the front door.

But then something suddenly dawns on him, and he turns back around to face her, anything to prolong his stay, "Do you need a ride to work?" He throws a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the driveway. "Didn't see a car out there." He adds in explanation.

But Tara shakes her head, smiling again though, "Thanks for the offer, but I'm good, my car's actually in the garage."

"Oh, okay." Jax nods in understanding, he should've figured as much, but he's trying to wrack his brain for anything to say to not leave things open ended like this with her. For Christ sake, he doesn't even have her number ... yet! 

A party Ope has mentioned to him suddenly springs to mind, stopping short already halfway out her front door, and he looks back at her again, "Hey, are you going to that party next Saturday, the one out by Lodi lake?" 

"Hmmm, ... maybe." Tara answers a little unsure, she smiles at the thought that he cares enough to ask, but also that her evasiveness seems to have rattled his usual rather cocky demeanor, because not a single 'darling' has slipped from his mouth since he'd gotten here, so that was undoubtedly progress. "It kinda depends if my friend Emma's back in town by then, 'cause we usually go to these kinds of things together." She finally adds in explanation, trying to gauge his reaction in return.

"Well, if she's not back by then, you can always tag along with Ope and I, if you feel like it." He offers, looking back at her rather sweetly.

"Yeah, alright." Tara tries her hardest to not just keep the excitement out of her voice and also from letting it show on her face, when she nods her head at him along with her reply of "Maybe I will", because she doesn't like the thought of coming off as too eager, or desperate to him.

After all, Jax has not only managed to wrap her dad, but also her dog around his little finger in no time at all, and she's just trying to retain some dignity here by not letting it show that he's already got her under his spell too.

He leans in closer, and he's so quick and nonchalant about it, like he's done this with her a million times before, that she doesn't even know what he's doing until he's already placed a sweet kiss against her forehead. Then gives her the most stunning smile she's ever seen someone of the opposite sex direct solely at her, his blue eyes shining brightly and hopeful. "See you later, darlin'."

Damn it, Teller, you'd almost made it!

X

Author's note: Here's the new chapter, sorry I haven't had time to reply to all the reviews and private messages, but I wanted to take the time to thank all of you here for being so helpful, motivating and encouraging with your messages to me. Thank you so much. Please let me know what you're thinking of this, can't wait to hear from you all. Thanks again!


	5. You know Tara?

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Later that same day

The little bell over the door jingles, announcing his entrance when Jax walks into Hanna's diner, nods his head in greeting to the older waitress Laura behind the counter at the same time as he quickly pulls a piece of paper from the pocket of his jeans.

"Hey, how you doin', darlin;?" He says when he's handing the paper over to her, waits for her to read over the order just in case she's got trouble deciphering the handwriting, before she looks up and replies, "Big order today, huh? It'll take about twenty to twenty-five minutes, sweetie."

"That's alright." Jax answers, then nods back towards the door, "I'll be right out front, having a smoke."

But before Jax can turn and step back out, Hanna herself, the young owner of the diner, steps around the corner, greeting him with a bright smile when she sees him. "Hey, Jax. A little late in the day for a T-M lunch run, isn't it?" She taps her wristwatch, noting the later hour.

"Hey Hanna." Jax smiles and nods back in greeting, "You know it, we got swamped today, so guess it's more like an early dinner run." It's just then that Jax realizes that all eyes are on him, unusually friendly smiles and approving looks directed at him.

At first he's not sure what to make of it, until Hanna steps up right in front of him, sweetly palming his cheek in approval. "Heard what happened over at Tara's house a couple nights ago, about you catching that guy that attacked all those women. Might've got something to do with business picking up at T-M. You're quite the town hero."

"Oh, yeah, that." Jax replies, a big grin spreading over his face, even though he's not entirely sure what else to say, he wasn't used to being praised for getting into fights, least of all by the locals, but something Hanna said caught his attention, and he has to ask, raising his eyebrows. "You know Tara?"

"Do I know Tara?" Hanna repeats the question scoffing, giving him a exaggerated eye-roll that he's not sure what to make of either, until she elaborates. "Of course I know her. Used to babysit her when she was just a itty bitty little thing. She's a good girl, still getting the hang of waitressing though, but she'll get there." She explains, but then gives him a curious look, "But I didn't realize that you two were friends though, or even knew each other, can't remember ever seeing the both of you come in here together."

"Yeah, we're friends." He replies, yet is nodding with a hint of reluctance, not entirely sure if he'd just told an outright lie.   
Were Tara and him friends now? Truthfully he's not really sure what they were after what has happened. He'd like to think they were friends, hopefully they'd be even more than friends in the future, if he was being completely honest with himself.

"Well, your friend's out back on her break, in case you wanna say hi." She smiles, but before he can say anything in reply, she nods towards the refrigerated pie display right next to them, "Want a piece of pie, on the house, while you wait?"

"Sure, thanks." Jax says, his mind already on Tara again and his eyes automatically glancing towards the back of the diner.

"Laura? Get the boy a piece of pie at no charge." Hanna calls the other waitress back to the counter, before she turns back to Jax, "Which one, sweetie?"

"Cherry pie sounds good." Jax replies, and takes the plate and fork that Laura hands him just a moment later. "Thanks, darling." He says, before he turns his attention back to Hanna once more, "You said Tara's in the back?"

"Yeah, follow me." She waves her hand in a gesture to tell him to come along, and Jax falls in step behind her, until they get to a service door that leads to the back alley, and she holds it open for him to step on through with his plate and fork in hand. "She's right out here."

Unlike the inside, the back alley behind the diner is quiet, seemingly abandoned really, except for Tara sitting on an old wooden bench, her legs crossed, her head buried in a book, so much so that she hasn't even noticed the door opening and Jax stepping out joining her.

Jax's eyes fall on her, taking her in just sitting there, and he has to swallow the sudden dryness in his throat away, because leave it to Tara Knowles to make the pale yellow waitress uniform, that all of Hanna's staff's wearing these days, look hot as hell. "Hey." He says, for lack of a better greeting, when he finally gets his bearings back.

Tara jerks, clearly startled by the sound of his voice, "Shit." The hardcover book in her hands is dropping to her lap when she raises her hand to her heart in shock, "You scared me."

Jax can't help the smirk that appears on his face, even though he instantly apologizes, "Sorry, I didn't mean to." He steps closer to her, and she moves her bag to the other side of her, making room so he can take a seat beside her. "I didn't know you work here?"

"Started when school got out, still pretty new at it." She explains, pointing out an array of food stains on her white apron, but then gives him a curious look, noting his attire, his stained Teller-Morrow shirt, the smudge of grease on his cheek that somehow makes him even more attractive, along with the still visible cuts and scrapes and shiner, from when he'd defended her that still make her feel a little guilty. "You just got off work?"

He hurriedly swallows the bite he just took from his pie, shaking his head, "No, I wish, but not even close, I'm just here to pick up some grub for everyone. I'm working 'till closing tonight. You?" He eyes her curiously, taking another bite.

"I get off at eight, so thankfully I won't have to close. I hate closing." She explains, taking a drink from the soda can that had been sitting on the ground by her feet but was now in her hand, feeling just a tad bit strange still to be hanging out with Jax like they were suddenly friends.

A few quiet moments pass in silence, while Jax continues to eat his pie, and Tara sips on her drink, both staring off into the distance of the alley and buildings around them, glancing at each other almost shyly ever so often, because neither of them seems to know where to take the conversation from here. They both really don't know each other, don't know what to talk about without Opie around as a buffer, that much is glaringly obvious.

But it's Jax who finally breaks the ice, nodding towards the open book still laying in her lap, "What ya' readin'?"

Tara looks a little sheepish, maybe even a little embarrassed too for just a moment, but quickly slips her bookmark in place, before she closes the book to show him the front cover.

"Stephen King Gerald's game?" Jax reads the title out loud but there's an obvious questioning undertone to his voice as he's taking in the front cover that shows a pair of handcuffs hanging from what appears to be a wooden bedpost.

"You know it?" Tara asks, managing to look more serious again now, and Jax shakes his head no, before his eyes flicker to meet hers for a second as if to ask for her permission before he's reaching out to take the book from her.

He puts the already empty pie plate on the seat beside him, the fork sliding to the edge of the porcelain plate, almost falling off, but he catches it just in time, putting it back in the middle to stay put, before licking some pie filling off of the tip of his thumb while he turns his attention back to Tara's book in his other hand.

He turns it over quickly, and Tara can't help but blush slightly when he begins to read the synopsis out loud, because she's already anticipating that he'll get a kick out of the beginning of what it says. "Once again, Jessie Burlingame has been talked into submitting to her husband Gerald's kinky sex games -" And just like Tara expected, Jax pauses at that, and looks over at her, he doesn't actually say anything teasingly out loud, but the way he's grinning, raising his eyebrows and his blue eyes sparkling in obvious amusement, does all the talking for him. His facial expression a silent question at what kind of books she is into. 

Tara smirks back, but tries not to seem bothered by the look he's giving her, so he turns his attention back to the book, carrying on with reading the summery out loud "... something that she's frankly had enough of, and they never held much charm for her to begin with. So much for a 'romantic getaway' at their secluded summer home. After Jessie is handcuffed to the bedposts - and Gerald crosses a line with his wife - the day ends with deadly consequences. Now Jessie is utterly trapped in an isolated lakeside house that has become her prison- and comes face-to-face with her deepest, darkest fears and memories. Her only company is that of the various voices filling her mind ... as well as the shadows of nightfall that may conceal either an imagined or very real threat right there with her." 

At that last part Jax can't help but look over at Tara again, no longer amused at all, instead slightly shaking his head to himself at the plotline of the story, as he hands the book back to her. "You must have nerves of steel, darlin', if this is the kind of book you're reading after what happened at your place?"

"Hmm, not sure that I do." Tara sort of scoffs, shaking her head, before she admits, showing him the place where her bookmark's at, which was pretty far near the end of the book. "I started it a while back, before ... you know, and now I'm not so sure I can actually stomach to finish it though. I keep starting and stopping, but not really getting very far." She's even surprising herself to show her more vulnerable side to anyone, let alone someone like Jax, who she still barely even knew.

"Then don't." He blurts out, shaking his head at her, and giving her a look that's telling her that this is a no-brainer, before he digs out a cigarette from his pack. "You need to find yourself some kind of ... you know, some romantic they-lived-happily-ever-after love-story, that'll take your mind off of what happened, not make you relive it." He finally puts the cigarette in his mouth and quickly lights it, before he suddenly looks over at her, holding the cigarette out in front of him again now, gesturing with it. "Shit, sorry ... you don't mind, do you?"

"Go ahead, I don't mind." Tara replies, smiling sweetly at him, still thinking about the earnest sounding concern she could make out in his voice when he told her to stop reading this particular book. Maybe he was right? But why did he even care? And why did she find herself caring about the fact that he cared? Jesus, when and how and why did Jackson get in her head, and how the hell will she get him back out!

Suddenly the back door of the diner opens once more, and none other than the Chief of police Wayne Unser steps through and comes into view, taking both teenagers by surprise. 

"There you are." He huffs as he steps up right in front of them. "Just the two kids I was looking for."

"What's going on, Chief?" Jax asks, tossing his hardly touched cigarette onto the ground and grinding it out again as casually as he can muster, before he can't help but squint against the sun when he looks up and tries to focus on the older man that has come to a stand right before them.

"Tara." He greets nodding at her, but she just nods her head, looking at him curiously for a long moment, before she finally finds her voice too, and replies with a simple. "Hi."

Wayne clears his throat, suddenly hesitating for a second as he tries to think of the right words to say here since he's talking to two kids. He directs his attention at Tara first, "I tried to get a hold of your father, sweetheart, but he's not answering his phone at home or the office?"

"He's working, got several appointments today. Why do you need to find him? Is something wrong?" She can't help but ask with obvious concern etched onto her young face, and it's notable in the sound of her voice as well.

He clears his throat once more, when he feels both their eyes fixated on him now, so he decides to just go ahead and come right out of it. "It's about the man that attacked you, Michael Dunley."

"What about him?" Jax speaks up now, catching Wayne by surprise with his interruption and causing the older man to stumble with his words some more, his attention back on Tara again. "It's a ... well, Michael Dunley died in county this morning, thought your father, and you, would like to know that you won't have to testify after all."

Then his eyes finally meet Jax's, "I've already talked to Clay and your mother, goes without saying that you won't have to testify either, son."

His eyes flicker back and forth between the two kids for a moment, "No subject, no trial."

"How did he die?" Tara surprises both male with the question, although Jax already has a pretty good idea how, before Wayne can even open his mouth to begin to explain.

"He was shanked, bled out." Wayne answers, but then adds to clarify. "I mean stabbed, shanked means stabbed, sweetheart."

"I know what shanked means." Tara replies rather quick, but without sounding harsh or offended that he felt the need to further explain. "By who? I mean, why?" She suddenly adds.

"Not sure, not yet at least. Looks like Dunley must've made some enemies in there right off the bat." Wayne shrugs his shoulders along with his words, but still his eyes are meeting Jax's for just a split-second, wondering if the boy is aware that this was more than likely the Club's doing.

"Anyways." Wayne pauses for a second, before his eyes land on Tara again, "I left a message for your father on your answering machine at home, but ... uh, tell him he can give me a call down at the station if he's got any questions or what not, alright?"

Tara nods her head in reply, "Yeah, okay. Thank you."

"See you later, kids. Stay out of trouble." He tosses back over his shoulder as he starts heading for the door now, and disappears through it just seconds later.

It's basically impossible for them to not look at each other, to not let their eyes meet for a couple of seconds in a silent and wordless, yet mutual acknowledgment of what has happened, and the implications of it. That this means that the nightmare is truly behind them. 

Jax is elated at the news that Dunley is dead. He wanted him dead, was furious that the Club handed him over to Charming PD instead of finishing it, yet he can't help but think back to Chibs' words from that night now. And it's all finally making sense. 'The little lass is safe, she won't have to testify in court, and neither won't you, Jackie ... let it play out. It's Club business now.'

"You okay?" The question slips out, and before he even knows what he's doing, he's wrapping his larger hand around hers resting on the bench between them.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tara nods in reply, her skin tingling under his touch is the oddest sensation, but she still manages to give him a sweet smile in return.

But even as she holds his steely blue gaze for much too long than would be deemed appropriate for someone claiming to be 'just friends', she's telling herself that she shouldn't be doing this. This is all wrong.

X

It's summer, still early June to be precise, so when Tara gets home from work that night, shortly after eight pm, it's still pretty light out, and she's secretly thankful for it, for not having to come home to a dark and empty house, since her father wasn't going to be home until pretty late that night, maybe even the next morning. 

Sue greets her happily at the back patio door when Tara lets her into the house after having spend most of the day outside. Tara picks up the water dish she has left out back for her dog and carries it back in with her in one hand, quickly using her other free hand to lock the back door behind her again right away too.

Her dad has been home for the majority of the last three days, and she has almost started to feel like her old self again, almost felt safe again, or maybe she just fooled herself into thinking so, because right now, when she finds herself standing alone in her kitchen, she doesn't feel like that at all.

She pulls the biggest, sharpest knife she can find from one of the kitchen drawers, and walks from room to room, checking every window to make sure it was indeed locked, closing the blinds along the way too. Next she checks all the doors again as well, the front door, the door that leads in from the garage, and last but not least the back patio door too, before she disappears into her bedroom, bringing Sue and the knife along with her, before she locks that door behind her as well.

Tara makes sure all her blinds are closed before she starts to undress out of her waitress uniform. The pale yellow dress with the white apron looks downright dingy in the incandescent lighting of her room, and she has no doubt that there is a lingering smell of grease that has seeped into the fabric and in her hair too, from the countless burgers and fries that she has been carrying back and forth from the kitchen today.

"Come on, Sue." Tara says almost impatiently, slapping her bare thigh to get the dogs attention, before she's grabbing the knife, bringing it along with her, locking her en-suite bathroom door behind her too, before the dog makes himself comfortable on the linoleum floor right in front of the sink and door.

She turns the water to hot, waiting it out, standing there in nothing but her bra and panties, reaching beneath the steady stream repeatedly to check if the temperature has reached an acceptable warmth, and pulls the hair tie from her hair.

She glares at the knife sitting on the counter by the sink once more, before she reaches back, undoes her bra and shrugs out of her underwear and quickly steps under the water, letting it cascade down her body, completely surrounding her and momentarily drowning out the world around her with it.

She washes her hair, takes her time first lathering it up with the shampoo, and then treating it with the conditioner too. Next she scrubs her face with the help of a washcloth, washing any remains of makeup away in the process, then pours a generous amount of body wash onto the washcloth once more and washes the rest of herself too, before she finally sinks down to the bottom of the bathtub after.

She adjusts the temperature again, turning it slightly hotter now, as hot as she can stand it, then pulls her knees to her chest, hugging her legs and lowering her head, resting her forehead against her knees, and that's when the tears begin to fall mercilessly and her body shakes as the sobs start falling uninhibited from her mouth. 

Ever since it happened, she's been trying so hard to put a brave face on for everyone around her, trying to pretend that what happened to her has just rolled off of her back, but right now, all alone in her shower, without her father home to reassure her safety with his mere presence under the same roof, she's losing that battle, can't keep the charade up another second longer, and so she allows herself to let go of the confusing and scary thoughts that have been plaguing her since that night, but which she's tried so hard to suppress and hide behind a fake smile instead.

She knows it doesn't even make sense, feeling the way she's feeling, knowing what she knows. That the guys is dead, and will never be able to come back and try to hurt her again, but she can't help the ways she feels, even if she tries. It's just something she knows she'll have to work through one way or another, and for now, letting the tears fall and the cries escape was the way to do just that.

Afterwards, she does feel better, she's all cried out and all dried up, dressed in a old ratty-looking, yet super-soft pair of pajamas that used to belong to her mother, and a towel wrapped around her still wet hair. Tara's just lying on her bed, the knife on the nightstand easily within reach, with Sue curled up into her side, already fast asleep, while she's listening to the silence around her, trying her best to not feel afraid or make too much of every bump in the night. 

Tara glances at the alarm clock, scrunching her eyebrows together in thought as she's trying to do the math in her head, wondering what time it is in Alabama right now, where her best friend Emma is at. 

She realizes it's close to midnight there already, but she rationalizes that it's summer, and surely her parents will cut her some slack regarding the late hour, especially in hindsight of what has happened. 

So Tara quickly sits up, scoots back, propping one of her pillows behind her back to be more comfortable as she's leaning up against the wooden headboard and reaches for the phone her dad had hooked up in her room in an attempt to help her feel a little safer again. She then grabs the piece of paper with Emma's number scribbled on from her nightstand too, glancing at it as she starts to dial in a hurry. 

As expected it rings a couple of times, but then someone finally answers, and she's relieved that the person who does answer seems neither tired, nor angry for the late night call, and Emma's voice quickly appears on the other end of the line.

They don't talk for long, because her dad would not be thrilled about those long distance charges, but it still feels good to hear Emma's voice and forget for just a couple of moments about all the troubles that are haunting her here these days.

She's tempted, very tempted indeed, and actually almost spills her guts to Emma about those odd little meetings and moments with Jax, and the way she's been starting to feel towards him, but just the sheer mentioning of his name to her best friend quickly reminds Tara why she's never shown much interest in the blond teenage boy before. It's because Emma has a huge crush on him, always has, and if there's one thing you don't do, it's going after your best friends crush, it's an unwritten rule. Isn't it?

X

About one week later

Tara rolls to the side, blinking a couple of times to adjust her eyes to the brightness of her bedroom, before she can focus on the time displayed on her alarm clock. It was already eleven am, and she could appreciate the fact that her dad had let her sleep in this late, considering she'd come home pretty late last night after having to help close down Hanna's diner.

She can hear some commotion in the house, no doubt her dad is in the kitchen trying to cook something for lunch, so she decides that it's probably about time for her to get up too, maybe even help him out with whatever it is he was doing, because truthfully, she was so thankful to even have him home as much as he has been as of late. 

He'd moved his whole working schedule around, canceled countless things he'd had on his agenda just to be able to be at least home with her at night, and she loves him for it, so much, but somehow it still wasn't quite the same. She still wasn't quite the same! 

Tara has never been a loner, she has always been the kind of girl that surrounds herself with people, even if it meant she couldn't truly be herself in order to fit in, in order to try to belong.   
She has had a steady boyfriend named Logan for the most part of the last school year, she has her best friend Emma, who she can always count on to have her back, then there is her second cousin Lincoln, better known as Linc, who she was thick as thieves with even though he was a couple years older than her, and who blew into town now and again from San Diego. And then there were of course a whole lot of other friends from school as well, but they weren't as close a confidant to her as the formerly mentioned, but noteworthy just the same.

Yet of course fate would have it that Logan and her had just broken up about a month and a half before school got out. Emma had left for Alabama to visit her grandparents as soon as the last school bell had rang. Linc had gone on some road trip to god-knows-where with his girlfriend, and everyone else was also either gone for the summer or too busy to be bothered. 

So during one of the worst days of her life, she'd found herself utterly alone, with the exception of Jax and Opie, who up until that fateful day, she'd barely known.

But she hasn't heard from nor has had any more encounters with Jax, neither at the diner, nor here at home, and truthfully she knows that it's for the better this way, because it would definitely be easier to get over him, or stop thinking about him altogether without actually having him around and in her face all of the time. That way, she hopes that by the time school starts up again in two months from now and she has no choice than to see him every day, those feelings she was beginning to harbor towards him will have disappeared again too.

But right now she doesn't want to think about all of that anymore, because today is going to be a good day since Emma was coming back home. And Tara would be lying if she said that the return of her best friend wasn't somehow making her feel like things were finally going back to normal again. Or at least that's another thing she's hoping for as well.

It's a hot mid-June day, and Tara quickly dresses in a pair of jean shorts and a tank top, and runs a brush through her hair before she pulls it together in a low ponytail, ready for a lazy day spend at home just catching up with her best friend when she comes over later today. 

She heads straight for the kitchen, where the radio is playing and her dad is standing with an apron that reads 'kiss the cook' over a mountain of meat, different cuts of steaks to be exact. "Jesus, who's supposed to eat all that?" 

Then she glances around the rest of the kitchen, noting bags of chips, sodas, beers, paper plates and plastic cutlery, amongst other things that would indicate a party of some sort was in the works. "Um, what is going on?"

"Morning to you too, sunshine." Her dad replies with a hint of sarcasm, raising his eyes from the cuts of meat in front of him to look at her.

"Sorry. Morning." Tara mumbles, and pulls a soda can from the fridge, holding it against her temple to cool herself in this sweltering heat, before she realizes why the kitchen seems even hotter than the rest of the house. "Do you have the oven on?"

"Yeah, I've got a casserole in there." He answers, smiling back at her sweetly.

Tara's face contours in complete confusion, "Dad, what is all this food for?"

"We're having a little barbeque later, invited some of my friends, and some of yours too." Her dad further explains. "I had planned to invite the Teller's, I mean Teller-Morrow's over anyways, so ..." He spreads his arms, gesturing to the food all around, before he adds, "You know, I thought two birds, one stone."

A sudden rush of panic floods over her, but she tries her best to not let it show when she takes a seat on one of the barstools by the kitchen island, "You know Emma's coming home today, dad? I kind of had plans to just hang with her."

"Yeah, I know. I invited them, but her parents gotta unpack, got some things to take care of, so they won't make it, but Emma will be here, of course." He explains pretty nonchalantly, completely oblivious to the fact that he's singlehandedly ruined all of her plans today.

Tara takes a gulp from the soda can, trying to find her voice, because this is not how she pictured this day would go. So much for staying clear of Jax. "So you invited the Teller's? And Emma? And who else?"

"Well, Piney, Opie too. Linc's coming up from San Diego for a couple of days, couple of my buddy's from the Alibi, you know, the usual." He replies, pouring some oil and vinegar along with some spices into a big bowl and starts whisking it with the ease of a skilled chef.

"Okay." Tara replies, reality starts sinking in that the laid back day she has planned with Emma was no longer on the agenda, and instead there was probably all sorts of stuff that still needs to get done around here before guests would start arriving. She suddenly wishes he would've woke her up earlier after all. "So, ... what do you need me to do, dad?"

"I thought you'd never ask, kiddo." He replies, before he starts rattling off the to-do list.

X

There's some speakers set up on the concrete part of the back porch, playing some rather eclectic range of songs, at a volume that leaves it still fairly easy to carry on a conversation. Most of the backyard is covered with tables and already occupied lawn chairs, with several coolers along the fence that hold beers and sodas, while James Knowles himself is working his magic on the grill, using tongs to flip the pieces of steak over in even intervals to brown the meat just right from all different sides. And inside the house there's a little line of people forming in the kitchen, where the rest of the food is presented buffet style on the dining room table for the guests to help themselves to whatever they like.

Tara and Emma have helped with about as much as they possibly can, and are just about to hide away in Tara's room for a little peace and quiet, trying to slip unnoticed through the living room, when their silent disappearance act is suddenly interrupted with Jax's and Opie's arrival to the party.

"Hey." Tara greets both the boys with a friendly smile as they enter through the unlocked front door, that holds a sign to urge guests to let themselves in rather than wait for someone to answer. 

Opie and Jax nod their heads in greeting when they utter a simple "Hey" as well, stepping further into the house and closing the front door again behind them.

"How you doing?" Jax greets Tara even further, leaning in, sweetly kissing her on the cheek, causing her to slightly blush, but more so from his hands that casually touch her waist, then from the kiss itself.

Emma looks downright envious for a moment, until Tara deflects the attention onto her. "Jax, Opie, this is my friend Emma." She gestures with her hands to the blond and blue eyed, slightly taller and more slender girl right beside her.

Jax and Opie nod back at her in greeting, tossing a casual sounding 'Hey' in her direction now too, and Tara has to bite her lip to not laugh out loud at the expression that crosses Emma's face when she's eyeing not just Jax, but also Opie like some juicy pieces of meat. 

Emma is not known for her shyness, the opposite really, she's bubbly, outspoken and forthright, but right now she's practically salivating at the mouth, before she finally snaps out of it and greets them back, sticking out her hand in a weirdly adult like gesture, taking turns shaking theirs. "Hi, heard you two saved my girl's ass that night."

"Yeah, I guess we did." Opie pipes up smiling, before he adds, "Sorry, we're late" turning his attention back to Tara for a moment. 

"No worries, there's still plenty of food left." Tara replies and gestures towards the dining room table, "And my dad's out back, he'll throw a fresh steak on the grill for you, you just gotta let him know how you like it cooked."

"Thanks, that sounds real good." Jax replies this time, and pats his flat stomach. "I'm starving actually."

The guys follow the girls out back, and her dad has already had his fair share of drinks, acting overly enthused when he greets them, before he quickly gets to work on their steaks, giving his best impression of a short order cook if Tara's ever seen one.

So the four of them find a couple of empty lawn chairs, and carry them towards the back of the yard. Away from the crowd of adults her father has invited, so they can sit and hang out, while they're waiting for their meat to get grilled to their liking, which shouldn't take very long at all.

It starts out with some rather awkward small talk amongst the four teenagers, but Tara finally speaks up with a real question.

"So, are your parents coming too?" She asks with a hint of curiosity, looking back and forth between both boys, partially just to break the ice, but also because she'd actually love to meet Jax's mother. The latter mostly because she wants to see for herself if the reputation that precedes Misses Teller-Morrow holds any truth to it at all.

"Yeah, Piney's on his way." Opie replies, taking a sip from the beer Tara's dad has handed him just moments ago.

But Jax's eyes meet Opie's for a moment with a look that Tara wishes she could decipher, before he answers as well, shaking his head. "Mine won't make it, Clay's got Club business, and my mom's helping out, babysitting a friends kid tonight. Sorry, maybe next time." He takes a sip from his beer now too, trying to wash away the taste of the lie he just told from his tongue. 

"Yeah, sure." Tara nods, but can't help but wonder why Jax would even assume that there would ever be a next time for their families to gather like this again.

X

A good long hour later, the boys have eaten and are stuffed. Some other friends of Tara and Emma have arrived, and Opie had even called a few of his and Jax's as well, and before long they all find themselves hiding out in the garage instead, away from the adults and able to actually let off some much needed steam. 

They took a couple of lawn chairs in the garage with them, so along with the old worn out sofa, loveseat and arm chair that's been sitting against the wall on the empty side of the two car garage, there's more than enough seating to go around for everyone to have a seat. 

Tara brought her radio out, and her friend Joe stays busy trying to find a decent song or radio station to listen to, finally settles on a hip-hop/rap station that plays not just the latest hits, but some of the older stuff as well. 

Her older second cousin Linc has actually managed to swipe one of the coolers from the backyard, beers and all, and had walked it right passed Tara's dad and brought it out here to share, much to the cheer and applause and laughter of the teenagers in attendance. 

So after a couple of beers, and a random joint getting passed around, not only did the little group of misfits finally managed to find some common grounds of conversation and entertainment amongst them, but Tara in particular was feeling better than she had been in a long time.

It wasn't even so much the alcohol, or the weed that had her feeling more at ease, since she was neither drunk nor high just yet, but it was a combination of the fact that Jax, Opie and their friends seem to fit right in with her friends, and the fact that to her obvious surprise, neither Jax, Opie or she had been bombarded with question after question about the intruder that had attacked her less than two weeks ago. 

However, that feeling of contentment didn't last long after all, because then her eyes fall onto Jax sitting across from her in one of the lawn chairs, deep in conversation with Emma, who's leaning closer to him, Tara knows she's doing it to flirt, show of her boobs, but if she was to ask her she'd claim that it was to better hear what Jax is saying over the music that's playing in the background. 

Everybody else seems to be talking too, paired up and lost in their own little conversations around the garage, beer and weed and music making everyone feel at ease with one another. 

Tara forces herself to look away, looks down at the half-empty beer bottle she's clutching in her hand instead, trying so hard to direct her focus elsewhere, but fuck it, there's just no use. Her eyes flicker back up and fall back onto the blond and blue eyed couple sitting right across from her. Jesus Christ, if they'd ever have kids, they'd be breathtakingly beautiful.

She tries yet can't make out the words, but watches as Emma laughs out loud at whatever Jax has said, and he laughs right along with her. It's blatantly obvious Em is flirting with him, and he's flirting right back, clearly enjoying himself, and it's in that moment that Tara feels a sudden pang of regret, or maybe it's pang of desire or envy, which she's not sure. 

But she can actually feel it, a sudden sharp physical pain through her chest, and she can't help but wonder if this was what it feels like when your heart breaks!

It's Linc that's sitting right next to her that brings her back from her moment of painful self-awareness, when he drapes his arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer into his side, placing a sweet kiss against her forehead when he does so. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't here to protect you." He whispers in her ear, bringing voice to the subject she'd been so blissfully avoiding up until now.

Tara smiles sweetly, looking up at her older second cousin, who was really much more like an older brother to her. "I know." She replies at first for lack of anything better to say, but then she can't stop herself from quickly adding. "I'm fine, Jax was here, he saved me, so ... don't feel bad."

Linc just nods in understanding, knows she's not feeling up to talking about it, so he won't dwell on the subject any longer. Tara in turn closes her eyes and cuddles into his side, feeling safe and content for a second now that her mind has managed to push back the thoughts of Jackson and Emma at least for a little while.

"Don't fall asleep on me now, Tar." Linc jokes and nudges his shoulder against her, to jostle her awake, and she playfully nudges him right back with her elbow the same instant she opens her eyes again, albeit in protest. 

It's almost pathetic the way she can't help but let her eyes drift back to Jax and Em again as if she has no control over her body at all.

It's then that she suddenly realizes that Em has left the chair next to Jax, it's glaringly empty and tempting all the same. Where the tall blond beauty has disappeared to, Tara can't really be sure, all she knows is that she's suddenly aware of Jax's eyes on her, and it takes everything she has to force herself to look up at Linc beside her instead. "Hey, where did Em go?" She whispers in his ear.

Linc just shrugs, before whispering back, "Bathroom probably." 

"I'm gonna go check on her." Tara replies, her hand on his thigh as she pushes herself up to a stand, before she hurries out of the garage, avoiding to make eye contact with Jax at all cost as she makes her way through the small crowd of friends.

She does find Emma moments later in the en-suite bathroom of her room, watching from the doorframe as her friend reapplies some lipstick and doubles up on the black mascara that makes her blue eyes look even prettier than they already naturally are.

Emma catches Tara's eyes in the mirror, smiling brightly, happily back at her. "I think he likes me. Can you believe it, Jackson Teller likes me." She says with so much glee in her voice, that Tara feels a rush of guilt wash over her when she realizes the envy she's feeling at hearing those words come out of her best friends mouth.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't suppose to have feelings for the same boy as her best friend. To say that this sucked was the understatement of the year, ... this broke her fucking heart!

Despite her heartache, she tries to smile back at Emma's reflection and nods, but can't bring herself to agree out loud with actual words, even though she believes that Emma might very well be right. From the looks of it, she'd bet money that Jackson Teller did in fact like Emma Roth. Goddamnit!

Tara swallows the lump in her throat away, points with her thumb over her shoulder, "I'm gonna go get some fresh air for a minute, check up on my dad."

"Yeah, sure." Emma replies, still smiling brightly, before she bares her teeth in the mirror and runs her finger across to wipe away the smudge of red lipstick from her front tooth, and it's Tara's cue to leave.

She stops by the door that leads out to the back patio and yard, smiling when she sees her father laughing out loud, sitting contently amongst his friends with a beer in one hand, a cigar in the other, and Sue curled up in the grass by his feet. 

But instead of heading out back to join him, or return to the garage, Tara makes her way to the front of the house and steps out onto the front porch instead. 

She's sitting down on the little stoop, the steps, trying to enjoy the lonesome quietness out here for just a couple of moments, cause she's not sure she can bring herself to go back and continue watch Emma make eyes at Jax for the rest of the evening.

She knows that she has to come to terms with the fact that whatever was going to happen between Jax and Emma was simply out of her control. Jax wasn't the first boy Emma and her have had a mutual crush on, and he probably wasn't going to be the last one either, but she hopes that these feelings she has developed towards him would fade with time. What was that old saying again? Time heals everything!

If that was true, then it was simply a matter of time before her world would turn right side up again and return back to normal. She'd just have to make herself scarce in the meantime, lay low and try to occupy her time otherwise to avoid him and her, which shouldn't be too hard to do, because she could always just pick up more shifts at the diner. More hours not only meant more money, but also less time spend at home, alone and afraid. It was a win-win, really!

The door to the right behind her suddenly opens and Opie steps out, nodding at her in a wordless greeting, before he pulls the front door shut again behind him.

He takes a seat right beside her without saying a word, just staring down the driveway, eyes scanning over nothing in particular, roaming mindlessly over the cars parked along the street, the houses and the scenery of the neighborhood.

They sit without speaking for several long minutes, Opie's nursing a beer, that he suddenly holds out to her, offering her a sip. Their eyes meet then for just a second, before she gladly accepts, takes a quick chug and hands the brown glass bottle right back to him.

"So Linc ..." He suddenly says, but pauses when he looks over at her, meeting her eyes again, before he adds, "He's older, huh?"

Tara nods, "Yeah, he'll be twenty-one next month." She's completely oblivious to the fact that Jax has send his best friend after her on some sort of recon mission, to gather information.

"Wow ... and your old man's cool with that?" Opie asks with both surprise and curiosity in his voice.

Tara can't help but smirk at that, not really understanding what Opie was getting at. "Um, yeah, I mean, it's not like he's got a choice." She glances up at Opie now, confusion written all over her face, but Opie's expression is that of a blank mask if she's ever seen one.

He shrugs at her reply, "I mean, he's your old man, he could tell you not to see him, tell you he's too old for you? I mean, five years is a pretty big age difference, didn't peg your dad for the type to be cool with that."

"Wait, what?" Tara shakes her head along to her words, confused still, until she replays his words in her head and they suddenly begin to make sense, and she realizes that there's some obvious misunderstanding. "Opie, you do know that he's my cousin, right?"

"Cousin?" Opie stares back at her now, perplexed himself for a second, but then he can't help but crack a smile when her words sink in as well.

"Well, technically he's my second cousin, I think ... he's my dad's cousin's son." She explains, can't help but smile herself now upon seeing the smile that's still displayed on his face.

"Yeah, that makes more sense then." Opie replies, nodding along and taking another sip from his beer. "Good." He adds.

"Good how?" Tara can't help but ask what he meant by that, amusement sparkling in her eyes.

For a second Opie's not sure how to respond to that, but he's quick to think on his feet. "Good that you're not hooking up with your cousin." He grins back at her.

Tara just laughs, elbows him playfully into his arm, but shakes her head at the mere thought.

Another long moment stretches on in silence, before it's Tara this time to take the plunge and tries to face this little dilemma she's found herself in head on when she states. "So ... Jax and Emma really seem to hit it off." It hurts her even to say it out loud, but what's the use, she might as well face the music.

Opie has just raised the bottle to his lips and literally chokes at that, at her words, starting to cough violently, having the hardest time to catch his breath again, but when he finally does, he can't help but look over at Tara, nor can he help himself from blurting out the obvious either, albeit not very eloquently. "He's not, I mean, no, they're not ... hitting it off. Trust me."

"They're not?" Tara asks back in return, not understanding again what Opie was getting at. "I mean, they look like they are."

Opie lets out a exhausted sigh, shaking his head to himself, before he dares another glance at the smaller female form sitting next to him, undoubtedly breaking some kind of bro-code when he says. "You know he likes you, right?"

"What?" Tara says, suddenly stunned.

"Jax. He likes you. Won't shut the fuck up about you." Now he knows for a fact he broke the bro-code. Fuck! He's gone too far in his quest to move things along, so he quickly tries to back-pedal. "You can't tell him I told you though." 

Opie scrambles to his feet, because he's already said too much, needs to get the fuck away before he digs himself an even deeper grave.

"Opie, wait." Tara pleads with him, wants to take advantage of this rare opportunity of what Opie's able to share, but he's already through the door, glancing back at her though one last time as if something has suddenly dawned on him, the corner of his lip curving upward, "He's had a couple beers, a little weed, so you might wanna mention to him that Linc's your cousin, before shit get's ugly, you know ... just a thought."

X

Author's Note: I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave me a few words with your thoughts. Thank you.


	6. So I'm not scared, well, at least not of you

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Tara's mind is still reeling in shock from what Opie has just shared with her. 'Jax. He likes you. Won't shut the fuck up about you.' - Oh no no no no no! 

And to top it all off, he also revealed that Jax is feeling jealous about Linc. The nerve of that guy, after he's been flirting with Emma all night!

To say that she is thoroughly confused is an understatement. It was one thing having to deal with her own bewildering feelings towards him, but knowing that he might be feeling the same way somehow made everything so much more complicated ... but also so much worse. Mostly because it suddenly puts ideas in her head that barely had a leg to stand on before Opie had joined her out here, but now they were an actual possibility, and she instantly hates herself for allowing her mind to even go there.

Tara shakes her head to herself, because it doesn't matter how she feels, and it matters even less to her how Jax feels, if that part is even true. This can't be happening. It's out of the question, ... Emma is her best friend! Jesus!

Enough is enough, she needs to get her head on straight again! She won't allow Jax Teller to get to her this way, to mess with her head like this, sending Opie out here to question her relationship with Linc ... doesn't even have the balls to talk to her herself, because he's too busy flirting with Emma instead. Jerk!

For one, Tara rationalizes that maybe all these weird feelings she has towards him are all just residual gratitude about him saving her. Maybe if Opie had been the one who'd stayed behind with her and had beaten the crap out of her attacker, then she'd be daydreaming about the Winston boy now instead of the blond, blue-eyed heir to the Teller-Morrow garage. 

Why couldn't it have been Opie? Things would be so much simpler if it only had been him instead.

And second, maybe the fact that she hasn't felt much like herself lately, since that god-awful night, also had her head all screwed up, and maybe none of what she was feeling was even really real. Maybe if she could just get out of her head, figure out how to not feel so scared in her own fucking skin right now, in her own home, and stop feeling like the goddamn victim, then all of this would resolve itself somehow on its own. Sooner or later, or at least she hopes it will ... for crying out loud, she couldn't even bring herself to finish reading a goddamn book!

With newly found resolve to change her own fate, Tara scrambles to her feet and slowly makes her way back into the house, and back to the garage. She can't hide out forever, or rather she won't.

Fuck feeling scared, fuck feeling helpless, fuck being the victim, fuck the feelings for Jackson Teller, and most of all, fuck Michael Dunley, for what he did to her to make her feel this way in the first place!

When Tara enters the garage, the first thing she sees is Jax, Emma, Opie and Linc standing in a group off to the side, sipping on their beers, talking and laughing about god-knows-what, and she can't help but let her eyes flicker to meet Opie's in particular. 

The big brooding looking tower of a boy just let's a smirk appear on his lips for a split-second and then nods at her, and with just that one little nod and look in her direction, he's managed to convey that he's filled Jax in on who Linc was in relation to her. 

Tara's grateful, since in his quest to keep the peace, Opie's done her a huge favor, because this way she can continue to avoid Jax for the rest of the night, and maybe if she's lucky she'll hopefully figure out a way to avoid him for the rest of the summer, too.

But just as that thought crosses her mind, the four of them look her way now, both Linc and Emma even wave their hands at her, making a gesture for her to come join their little huddle, but Tara's quick to wave them off, meeting Jax's intriguing eyes for just a split-second before she makes an excuse about having something to talk to her other friends about instead.

She grabs a beer from the cooler, hands it to her friend Joe who twists it open for her, and joins in on the meaningless conversation between him and Rayna, talking about everything and nothing, but mostly it's Joe pouring his heart out over his latest split with his girlfriend, or rather ex-girlfriend Cassidy. And Tara's not only grateful for the welcoming distraction, as much as knowing she's not the only person in the room with a heartache tonight. Misery loves company!

Tara is pretty fucking proud of herself for managing to keep up the appearance of disinterest with every minute ticking away, not once glancing over at him again for the rest of the night, or even Emma for that matter. And her blond best friend's seemingly too busy trying to impress her crush to even notice her deliberate absence by her side.

The beers she's guzzled down way too fast, along with the joint she's shared with Joe and Rayna sure do help in her cause to convey disinterest, the task getting easier with each sip and each hit, or at least she's telling herself that, until things are beginning to get too disorienting to really still care, and before too long, all just goes black.

X

A loud obnoxious bark from one of her neighbors dogs is what eventually awakes her the next day. She's still fully dressed, curled around her pillow in the middle of her bed with Sue fast asleep right beside her. She stretches, then is groaning in pain, rubbing her temple, but to no avail, her head hurts so much. 

She's never harbored any ill will towards an animal, especially not a dog, but right now she truly considers strangling Misses Callen's dog from two houses down until he quits howling, because of the piercing pain every bark inflicts, that even pulling her pillow over her head can't seem to drown out.

So she's propping herself up on her elbows, squinting around the room, trying to fight the painful pounding in her head in order to recall how exactly she ended up back in her own room, in her own bed last night, in the first place. 

The last thing she vaguely remembers is drinking and smoking weed with Joe and Rayna, but everything after that is nothing but a blur. Honestly, it's not even that, not even a blur, it's more of a blank, like her mind's been wiped clean, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't a little bit scared of what she might've done or said last night. 

But all of that will have to wait, because at the moment she feels slightly nauseous as she climbs out of bed and scrambles to her feet, yet not enough to feel the need to rush to the bathroom. Thankfully she's been smart enough to only have beers the night before, or at least as far as she can recall that's all she's had.

She hasn't gotten sick from drinking since the first time she got drunk early on in her freshman year. It had been her first year of cheerleading, after the after party of the first Charming High Football game of that season. Mixing several different alcoholic beverages that night was what one would call a rookie mistake, but what ultimately really did her in was too much bourbon, and she hasn't touched that stuff ever since. The smell alone makes her want to puke still to this day.   
However, she's learned her lesson the hard way that night, vowing to never mix alcoholic beverages again, and thus far she's never gotten sick again the morning after either.

Tara knows the house is probably a mess, the backyard for sure would be, and probably the garage, too, but none of that matters to her at the moment. The mess would have to wait. Checking on her father, Em and Linc would have to wait. She needs to sober up, clear her head off this fog of uncertainty, and clean herself up first. 

So she quickly starts the shower, locks the bathroom door behind her, strips out of her clothes, and once the temperature has warmed up just enough to be tolerable, she fumbles to climb over the edge of the tub, almost taking the shower curtain down in the process, when she clings to it as she steps beneath the steady stream. Once more finding comfort in the way the water is drowning out the world around her for a little while again. 

Other than her face, she doesn't really wash up, not in the typical sense of soap and shampoo and the such, but just slips to the bottom of the tub again, and rests her eyes. With her knees pulled to her chest again, she sits in complete silence for far too long, but she finally does get out when the water starts to turn cold on her.

X

She finds her father fast asleep and loudly snoring in his bed, also still fully dressed, while Linc is already up and has been busy cleaning. 

So she pops a handful of ibuprofen, downs them with a glass of water, before she grabs a trash bag and wordlessly joins in on the clean-up in the back yard.

"How 're you feeling?" Lincoln dares to ask, pausing what he's doing for just a second, looking over at her, to literally look her over. 

Tara arches her eyebrow at him, squinting against the early afternoon sun, before she focuses back at the task at hand, picking up empty beer bottles and paper plates off of the tables and out of her yard. "Like shit."

"You look like shit." Linc replies somewhat truthfully, but can't help but smirk a little at his own words, and the expression that crosses her face upon hearing them, before he gets back to work.

"Thanks, just what a girl wants to hear." Tara replies back rather snarky, getting back to work, hoping the painkillers will kick in soon to stop that horrible pounding in her head, but then she suddenly stops again, clutching the trash bag in her hands, when she turns towards her older cousin. "Hey, I didn't do anything stupid, or ... say anything stupid after I got wasted, right?"

"Define stupid?" Linc replies rather dryly, and Tara's head starts to pound even louder at the possibility that she's made a complete fool out of herself, and as if Linc can read her mind, he instantly adds, "Relax, cuz, I think the only stupid shit you said was to me, and you know I can take it. So, no harm no foul."

She feels a little bit relieved upon hearing that, but still can't help but ask, "Um, what exactly did I say?"

Linc finally stops what he's doing, and turns towards her now, to give her his undivided attention, too. "When I was bringing you to bed, you called me your brother from another mother, ... well, and then you made a comment about me being the lucky one, since my mother was still alive, and yours ... wasn't."

"Oh shit." Tara exclaims, and takes a seat in the nearest lawn chair behind her. "Dead mommy came up." She adds shamefully, meeting his eyes, "I'm sorry, Linc."

"I know." He nods. "Like I said, no harm no foul." He replies, giving her another once over, noting the weary expression on her face. 

"What's going on with you?" He suddenly asks, "I mean, why did you even drink that much? Giving your old man a run for his money. Is it still about the breakup, or the break-in? Or both?"

Tara shakes her head, but regrets it immediately when the pain level raises tenfold. "No, wasn't really about Logan, but ... I guess part of it was about the break-in, and ... you know, some other stuff."

"What other stuff?" Linc asks, not missing a beat, stepping closer to her.

"Girl stuff, you know, high school girl stuff, not exactly your expertise." Tara replies with an attempt of a smile, trying to throw her cousin off of the scent of her current boy dilemma again. And before Linc can ask anything else, she quickly asks a question that's also been on her mind since she woke up and was able to think at least halfway straight again, "Speaking of high school girls, what happened to Em? She was supposed to stay the night."

"That tall guy, Opie, he gave her a ride home, I think." Linc replied.

"Really? Was she mad at me? I mean, did she say why she wasn't staying the night?" Tara fished for an explanation, too afraid to ask out loud if she might've accidently spilled the beans about her feeling towards Jax after all.

Linc shook his head, "No, she didn't seem mad at all, but she didn't say anything about staying the night either when she left. I think she was a little tipsy, her and Jax had a few too many, so Opie was giving both of them a ride home. That's all I know." He explained, but then ask. "Did you guys have a fight?"

"No." Tara replies, but then adds, "I mean, I don't think we did, but like you said, I was pretty drunk."

A beat or two passes and they both start to get back to the task at hand, cleaning up the yard, before Tara stops once more. "So she was drunk, and left with Jax, who was also drunk?" She voices the question in her head out loud, trying to clarify what Linc has said, and she was too out of it herself to even attempt to hide the frown from showing on her face when Linc simply nods his head in reply, and giving her a quizzical look in return.

X

Several hours later

Tara opens the front door, but before she can even get a single word out, Emma is already stepping right passed her to get inside, "Jesus, I've been trying to call you, but it just keeps ringing and ringing, what is going on?"

Tara groans inwardly, quickly closing the front door again. After some food in her stomach and a afternoon nap, her hangover was finally gone, but she wasn't really in the mood for a play-by-play of Emma's night with Jax just yet. The thought of hearing about it made her stomach turn again, and the idea of having to even feign interest made her feel both angry and sad at the same time.

"Sorry, both dad and I had a headache, didn't really feel like talking." Tara tries to justify why she has the phone unplugged from the wall altogether.

"Are you mad at me?" Emma spins back around to face her friend, coming right out with the question on her mind without a moment to spare.

"What?" Tara shakes her head, feigning to have no idea what Emma is talking about. "No, why would I be mad at you?" 

Emma looks back over her shoulder, checking if either Tara's dad or Linc are within earshot, but Tara gets what she's doing and speaks up again before Emma can. "They're not home, it's just me. What's up?" Tara asks, starting to pass by her towards the kitchen, and Emma is following along right behind her.

"I just figured you'd call me once you woke up, but then you didn't. And when I tried to call, you never answered. And then I thought you might be mad, because I was talking to Jax all night, or that I didn't stay over." Emma starts to explain, throwing her little purse onto the kitchen counter, before she turns back towards Tara and gladly accepts the cold soda can the brunette is offering to her out of the fridge.

"I was just really hung-over when I woke up, felt like shit, and then I was busy helping Linc clean up ... sorry." Tara tries to sound sincere in her explanation, and it was after all only partially a lie.

But Emma can see right through her, knows there's got to be more to it than that. "I know I was a shitty friend last night. After everything that happened, I was too busy flirting with Jax Teller and totally ignored you, I'm sorry." She starts to apologize. "You drank quite a bit last night, so Linc brought you to your room. And I went to check up on you later, but you were out cold. The whole point of me staying over was so we could talk, so ..." Her words die down, and she shrugs one shoulder at Tara.

"Yeah, I get it." Tara answers. "Sorry I drank so much. I was just ... I don't know, trying to get out of my head." She tries again to explain her behavior away, hoping that her friend will buy it.

Emma sighs, and looks Tara up and down for a long moment, so much so that Tara can't help but ask out loud, "What?"

"What's going on with you?" Emma speaks up, pointing out the obvious. "I mean, something's going on."

Now it was Tara's turn to sigh deeply out loud, before she took the couple steps over towards the island, bracing herself against it casually.   
What is going on with me? The question seems much too complex to answer just like that, at the drop of a hat, so Tara shrugs her shoulders, not really sure what to say. She wouldn't know where to even begin to explain, so she simply answers. "I don't know. I really don't." Her voice slightly trembles, her eyes watery, because despite everything, the one person she's always confided in was Emma, is Emma, and she fears this thing with Jax could derail their friendship, at least it seems it was already beginning to do just that.

Emma is by her side within a matter of seconds, pulling Tara into an hug, slightly awkward because she's still holding the soda can in her hand while she does so. And as if she can see right through Tara, she starts. "I'm sorry I was so far away when that break-in happened, I'm sorry you were all alone, and I'm sorry we haven't really talked about that, or anything really since I got back yesterday." Emma says sincerely, and both girls wipe at their eyes, trying to keep them from tearing up and letting the emotions getting the best of them.

"Jesus Christ, look at us crying like little bitches." Emma finally scoffs when she pulls away from the embrace with her best friend. "You've gotta promise that this never leaves this room." She adds, jokingly.

Tara lets out a little laugh, wipes at her eyes, but then makes a gesture with her hand, locking her lips with an imaginary key. "Promise."

X

They settle down on Tara's bed, both have a towel wrapped around their hair, to keep the hair mask they've applied from dripping down onto their clothes.

Tara touches her fingertip to her cheek, carefully testing how much the face mask they've applied has dried yet. Wiping the smudge on the tip of her finger off on the towel on her head. 

"What is this for again?" She asks, absentmindedly filing at her nails when she's looking over at her friend, who's sitting Indian-style in the middle of the bed and got a magazine in her hand, studying the front cover. A stack of more magazines strewn across the bed between them.

"Acne, and a radiant glow, I think, ... it's suppose to make us look even prettier." She replies, before she adds jokingly. "Like that's even possible."

Tara can't help but smile a little at that, but the part of the mask on her face that has already dried is pulling at her skin when she does, so the smile fades again quickly because it feels almost awkward to even talk like this. 

Emma reads off a couple of things from the magazine, the latest gossip about the current celebrity heartthrobs they're swooning over, and the latest trends in fashion and make-up. The usual, carefree ritual between the best friends.

"Look at this." Emma says, turning the magazine around to show Tara the headline of the page she's on. "How pure are you? A purity test." Emma rolls her eyes, shaking her head, before she adds. "Who even cares? So stupid."

"You just say that, 'cause you wouldn't score very good on that test anymore." Tara replies rather cheekily.

"Are you calling me easy?" Emma scoffs in faux outrage, and when Tara simply shrugs her shoulder Em's throwing one of the other magazines in Tara's direction, before she says, "We can't all hold onto our v-card forever, Tar. Sooner or later even you'll have to give it up."

They're both joking, just teasing each other, laughing out loud at their own little jabs. Moments later Em turns her attention back to the magazine, Tara focuses back on filing her nails, when she suddenly interrupts the quietness with a question of her own. "Do you think I should've slept with Logan?"

"What?" Emma looks up from the magazine, even with the obscurity of the facial mask, the confusion visible on her face. She shakes her head, dropping the magazine to the stack in the middle, giving Tara her undivided attention. "Why would you even ... I mean, do you still have feelings for him?"

"I still like him, a lot. And you know, he's a really good guy. Other than ..." Tara replies, biting her lip somewhat uncertain. "I just wonder if I should've just done it, you know? If I was stupid to over think it, to hold out like I did."

Emma stammers for a second with her words, with her reply, until she finally gets out what she's trying to say. "That's not why you two broke up, I mean, it wouldn't have changed any of that, probably would've made it even more complicated if you had slept with him, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I know. But I mean, we were together for almost a year, and the most he's ever gotten from me was a hand-job." Tara replies.

"So?" Emma huffs back. "Nice guy or not, you don't owe him anything."

Tara shakes her head, "No, that's not what I meant."

"Well, what did you mean?" Em is quick with her comeback. "Because you've barely wanted to talk about him since the breakup, so I don't get it."

Tara sighs, awkwardly leaning forward, pulling her knees up to her chest again, hugging her legs, before she dares to meet Emma's eyes just a few feet away from her, admitting something she's wondered about. "I just thought that if I hadn't gotten away from that guy, my first time would've been with some rapist-slash-serial-killer, you know? So, it made me think that maybe I should've already done it with someone that I like. Or should do it now with someone that I like. Like Logan." ... or Jax! She can feel her cheeks reddening beneath the clay mask, when the mere thought of Jax being the one comes to her mind, so she tries to push that thought away again. Far, far away!

"Jesus." Emma replies, a sudden somber atmosphere in the air between them as she contemplates over what Tara has just shared with her. "I didn't even think of that."

"I know. It kind of hit me out of nowhere too, after that night, you know." Tara answers, hesitating now, not sure what else to say.

There's a silence that stretches on between them, neither of them sure of what to say here, even though they're still looking at each other with unspoken questions in their eyes.

Emma eventually breaks the ice. "I mean, you and Logan are broken up now, so is that what you want your first time to be like? With Logan, like something out of a Nike commercial? Just do it? Get it over with? With someone you're not even dating anymore?"

"You're not with Bright anymore either." Tara states the obvious. "Do you regret that he was your first?"

"No, I don't regret it, because at the time I was in love with him. And I might still be now." Emma answers, "That's not the same like what you are saying. For one, Logan and you are broken up. And two, liking someone and loving someone are two very different things, Tar."

"I know." Tara sighs again, letting go of her legs, stretching them out across the bed before crossing them at her ankles, and leaning back against her headboard again. "I just feel like my life's spun out of control. Everyone's treating me like this victim, and I don't like it. I swear, I'd be rich by now if I got a dollar for every time a customer at Hanna's asks me about what happened, or if I'm doing alright. Then there's my dad, who's turned his whole working schedule around to be home with me every night, losing a shit-load of money because of me. And I'm so grateful for that, yet I hate it at the same time. I just can't really explain it." 

She shakes her head, hesitating for a second, "I just want a do-over, you know. Start fresh, be different, ... or something. Or at least do something I can control, something I have control over."

"So you think losing your virginity to your ex is your idea of having control?" Emma replies without having to think about it for long, with an obvious tone of sarcasm to her voice. 

"I just want to move forward, and I think that would be a step in that direction. I could've died that night, so ... I don't want to be scared anymore, I want to live a little, if that makes any sense?" She searches Emma's face for any sign of understanding.

"Logan's gonna think you want to get back together. I mean, do you want to get back together with him, or do you just want to ..." She shakes her head, "Jesus, I can't believe I'm saying this to you of all people, but do you just want to use him for sex?"

For the first time since they've started this awkward conversation, Tara actually can't help herself but smirk a little at Emma's outraged expression. "I really don't know, I mean, maybe it could lead to us getting back together. Do you think he would turn me down if it's just about sex?"

"Turn you down?" Emma repeats almost laughing, then adds, smirking herself, "Of course not, I have no doubt Logan will jump at the chance to finally screw you. God knows that guy could use some outlet for all that tension." 

They both let out a little laugh at that, but then Emma can't stop herself from saying, "You know, if two guys were sitting here, discussing taking advantage of their unsuspecting ex to lose their virginity, just for sex, we'd be very disgusted by them." She chuckles, and Tara does too.

"Yeah, that's very true. We would call them pigs, or ... way worse." Tara answers, shaking her head to herself when she thinks about it some more. "I guess I've got a little bit more time to sort out my feelings and really think about it, since Logan's still out of town anyways, ... or at least I think he is." 

She can't help but wonder if she would actually have it in her to even go through with it, should the opportunity present itself. She would like to think she would, and maybe directing her focus elsewhere, at Logan for example, would put her thoughts about the fair haired biker boy on the back burner for good.

Another spell of silence falls over them once the remaining little chuckles truly subside, until Tara speaks up again. "I really still like him a lot, he can be really sweet. So it's not like I would just be giving it up to some random guy who I have no feelings for, you know?"

Emma nods her head, trying her best to be supportive now. "Then go for it, I mean, as long as you're honest with him about it, and he's cool with it, then why not? Guys have casual sex all the time, so why shouldn't we?" Tara nods in agreement, then Emma adds, "He's really good looking, so that's an obvious plus, too. And we know that it wouldn't be his first time, so he probably knows what he's doing."

"Right." Tara agrees nodding again, the sore subject of Logan's prior experience suddenly making her wonder about what is expected of her. "Well, just out of curiosity, what is it exactly I'm supposed to be doing?" Tara asks, trying her best to hide the embarrassment in her voice to even have to ask that.

"Honestly, you don't have to really worry about that part. You can just sort of lie there at first." Emma replies, sounding much too nonchalant about the subject.

"Jesus, it sounds so romantic when you put it that way, Em." Tara huffs sarcastically in return.

"I hate to burst your bubble, sweetie, but it's probably not gonna be romantic, it usually never is the first time, especially if you build it up in your mind as this big thing that's gonna change your life forever, then you're gonna be disappointed, trust me." Emma gives her a knowing look that Tara quite honestly doesn't like, she's not used to being the one out of the know of things. "The lower your expectations are, the better."

A brief moment of awkward silence passes between the two friends. "Look, I know I never went into too much detail after Bright and I did it, but we're best friends, so you're allowed to ask me things." Emma suddenly adds.

But still, Tara can't help but shrug off the suggestion at first, "Ask you about what things?" She already knew from Em that it can hurt quite a bit the first time, that it was a little better the second time around, and that it wasn't until the third time it actually started to feel good, so Tara's expectations were undoubtedly low already.

Emma just gives her a sweet little smile, raises her eyebrows at her, because she knows Tara's question was just rhetorical, giving her a moment to actually come up with a real question after all, which ends up being. "Okay, so did you use something?"

"Tara, of course we did." Emma yells out almost outraged, misconstruing Tara's question as indecisiveness about using protection. "We used condoms. You have to! Promise me you'll make him wear a condom if you decide to do it!" She literally leans forward so she can grab Tara and jostle her along with her words of precaution.

"Okay, okay, I promise." Tara shouts back, but then quickly lowers her voice again. "You know, let's stop talking about it." She says, pulling her legs up again, so she can lean forward and drape her arms around her knees.

Yet after only a couple of long seconds of silence, the suggested change in subject is forgotten again, when Tara continues with her questions after all. "So, how did you, like ... decide, I mean, how did you know that you wanted to do if for sure?"

"I told Bright I wanted to wait until I was ready, you remember that, don't you? And then, that one night I totally was, and I just ... knew, so I told him, and it happened." Emma smiles sweetly again, but then a few moments later she frowns for a second, before she adds. "There is one thing you should know though, ... that after that, after we did it, having sex was like ... kind of expected. Because you can't like ... go back, you know? And when people know you've had sex, every guy after that will pretty much expect it, too."

"Oh, like they aren't doing that already now?" Tara replies with heavy sarcasm in her voice. "Because everyone already just assumes that Logan and I did it." She wasn't a wallflower before, always been pretty and outgoing, but after her breakup with Logan, she'd become downright popular with the opposite sex, simply because of the assumption that her and Logan had slept with each other.

"Exactly." Emma agrees, "They think you put out, suddenly you're on everyone's radar." She sighs, pausing for a second before she adds, "But then again, you don't want to end up like Monica Hoffer's sister either."

"What happened to Monica Hoffer's sister?" Tara asks, scrunching her eyebrows together in curiosity at the bit of small town gossip she wasn't aware of yet.

"She's twenty-nine years old. Never did it. Now she's petrified that she's gonna die a virgin. It's really sad." Em explains without missing a beat.

"God, being a girl just sucks, doesn't it? Nobody's giving the guys any crap for doing it, or not doing it." Tara huffs in volatile annoyance.

"I know." Emma replies, and reaches up to touch her face, feeling the mask completely dry by now, noting the tiny bits of dried clay that have fallen onto her shirt like little crumbs, from all the talking. "I think we should probably wash this off now."

X

Emma is carefully combing out her still wet hair, wiping her hand across the steamed up bathroom mirror to get a look at her own reflection.

Tara is in the shower now, her turn to rinse her facial and hair mask off under the hot stream, when she suddenly hears Emma's voice right outside the shower curtain, trying to be heard over the rush of water and the buzzing of the bathroom fan. "So, I forgot to mention, last night Jax said something about a party tonight at Lodi Lake Park. Wanted to know if we were going?" 

Emma pauses, waiting for Tara's reply, but when it doesn't come right off the bat, she adds, "We don't have to, if you don't feel like it. We can keep this 'girls-only' thing going for the rest of the night, if you want."

Tara shuts the water off abruptly, and reaches for the towel, wrapping it tightly around her before she pulls the curtain open enough to step out, and meets Emma's blue hopeful eyes. 

She knows her blond friend wants to go for yet another chance to make time with Jax, but truthfully that is the exact reason why she doesn't really feel like going. "I don't know." She answers at first, grabbing yet another clean towel from the shelf, bending over at the waist, so she can successfully wrap it around her long wet hair turban-style.

But when she stands straight again, and catches the almost sad expression on Emma's face in the reflection of the mirror, she's already contemplating changing her mind. 

Maybe she just needs to let loose, like she did last night, but maybe not quite to that extreme exactly. After a couple of drinks though it seemed much easier to ignore him and her chatting it up like they've known each other for years.

And who knows? Maybe she could meet someone new there, someone she would come to like just as much as Jax, someone her best friend didn't also have a crush on, and preferably someone not from Charming for a change. She damn sure wasn't going to meet anyone new in this one-horse-town!

"Alright, let's go." Tara finally blurts out rather enthusiastically, not just for Emma's benefit, but in an attempt to try to psych herself up, too. She turns around to meet Emma face to face, tugging the towel around her in place again, when it almost comes lose. "Just one thing though."

"What's up?" Emma asks rather gleefully, undoubtedly excited for another chance to see Jax.

"Is it alright if I'm gonna party, try to have a good time and maybe get out of my head a little, you know? But I kind of need you to be my wingman, or I guess, wingwoman, so I don't overdo it, especially with the drinking, like I did last night." Tara tries to explain herself, and Emma nods in agreement, without even having to think about it.

"Sure, Tar, I won't drink at all, 'cause after last night it's probably a good idea that at least one of us stays sober." Emma replies, all to happy to play chaperone for her best friend, if it means she gets to see Jax Teller again.

X

Jax swipes his hand down his face, his facial expression not at all matching the way he's casually leaning back against one of the large tree trunks that are scattered around the man-made sandbank, while he's looking around the campfire on the shore of Lodi Lake. 

He raises a cigarette to his lips, then his lighter, shielding the small flame from the wind with his other hand to finally light it, and then takes his first deep drag.

With the sun going down much later in June, it's just starting to get dark around here now. But he already can't even see Opie anymore from his seat in the sand. His best friend has taken off along the shoreline a little while ago, deep in conversation with a girl he'd randomly chatted up, a cute petite looking brunette, leaving Jax sitting here by himself. 

Sure, he's had a couple of females that have already approached him, too. Trying to flirt, offering to keep him company, despite his rather brooding disposition tonight. But he'd graciously denied them, told one after the next that he is actually waiting for someone, which is only partially a lie. He is indeed waiting for her, even though he has not the faintest idea if she is even going to show up here tonight at all.

After once more going out of his way to find the Knowles' home phone number in the phonebook earlier today, he's fruitlessly tried to call her house enough times to have memorialized the number by heart already. 

He's called her from home before he left for work this morning, then every time his mother stepped out of the office, he was right there on that phone, seizing the moment, trying the number yet again, and then another handful of times after he'd shown up at Opie's place before they decided to drive out here.

Opie had made the rather obvious suggestion to just stop by her house on the way, maybe even offer her a ride out here. But as eager as he was to see her again, he just didn't like the idea of her knowing about his eagerness just yet. Or maybe it was just his way of trying to fight the undeniable pull she already seems to have over him, whether she was aware of it or not.

Truth be told, he had it bad for Tara Knowles. Really, really fucking bad, that much has become crystal clear, even to him, the moment he realized that he found her yearbook picture and mental image of her more arousing than the stacks of playboy and penthouse magazines, and ultimately ended up jacking off with only her on his mind instead.

But now, as he sits here all by himself, he wants to kick himself for not listening to Opie earlier. He should've just stopped by her house, should've looked past the way she had downright ignored him the night before, swallowed his damn pride, and invited her to tag along with Ope and him. Because if he'd done that, he wouldn't be sitting here all alone now, like some chain-smoking dumbass, constantly letting his eyes roam and linger on every approaching female figure way off in the distance, in hopes that it turns out to be her. 

Yeah, showing up at her house and asking her face to face, would've been the most logical thing to do, especially considering how he feels about her, and yet, nothing seems to come natural or logical to him anymore since Tara's somehow managed to insert herself into his thoughts of every minute of every goddamn day. 

Last night though, after he got home and had stumbled into his bed with her on his mind, it has finally dawned on him, and he's come to realize that Tara Knowles didn't really fit in with any of the other girls he's encountered in the past, she was different. 

There were girls like her friend Emma, hot, sweet, bubbly, who would be overly flirtatious, not leaving a whole lot of doubt about wanting to get closer to him. 

Then there were the girls which were even more direct, usually the rich and spoiled brat type, with major daddy issues, that would love nothing more than to parade him, - the white trash biker with the criminal filled family tree -, around their old man, just to royally piss them off. 

And then there were the girls like his ex-girlfriend Amy, almost seeming sweet and innocent, at least at first, who'd start out playing hard to get for a little while, but before long the tables would turn, she'd be calling him, or showing up at T-M out of the blue, following him around like a lost little puppy.

And at first he'd believed Tara to be more like the latter, like Amy, just being coy, playing shy, whatever, but that she'd show more interest once he started to show some in her. Which he has already done, by showing up at her house with the damn spare key, making nice with her old man, then chatting her up in the back alley of Hanna's diner, and of course taking her dad up on the invite to the barbeque just yesterday, and last but not least, he's tried to call her today for what felt like a hundred times, but to no avail.

But last night, regardless of how many times he looked her way, tried to meet her eyes, tried to approach her, strike up a conversation, or find an in through her best friend Emma, Tara either vanished out of sight, or was too busy chatting with other people to even acknowledge his presence at all. 

So before he even really had a chance to talk to her last night, she'd been three sheets to the wind, hardly able to follow anything he would've said to her at that point, before Linc was helping her back to her bedroom to sleep it off.

He scans the shoreline once more, he even squints, trying to better focus at the shadowy figures way off in the distance, but Opie's nowhere to be seen. Then his eyes repeatedly flicker back to the heavily wooded tree line again, waiting and hoping the girl of his dreams would finally make her entrance, but still no such luck.

Clearly annoyed and impatient, he stubs his cigarette out in the sand, quickly lights up another one again, before he scrambles to his feet. With his cigarette hanging loosely from the side of his lips, he uses both hands to swipe the sand off of his backside, off of his jeans, before he starts to make his way over to the new keg, that someone has finally brought over and started up.

And just as it's his turn in line, and he reaches for the little hose and begins to fill up a plastic cup, Tara finally steps out of the woods, that lead back to the dirt road where everyone's parked their vehicle at, and into his direct line of view. 

But in the split-second that he saw her, the same instant that she saw him, she's already turned back around on the spot, literally walking into the other direction again, away from him. What the fuck is going on?

"Shit." Jax curses, mumbling under his breath, cigarette still hanging from the corner of his mouth and stops what he's doing at once, leaving the barely filled cup sitting on one of the tables and start heading after her. 

He quickens his steps to almost a jog in an effort to catch up with her, taking several long drags from his cigarette along the way, before he flicks the remaining stump into the sandy ground a few feet ahead of him, stepping it out, extinguishing the last remaining glimmer on his continued pursuit of the brunette beauty, who was not just occupying his daydreams, but his dreams at night as well. 

"Tara ... hey, Tara." He shouts after her, once he knows he's close enough for her to actually hear him over the music that's blaring from the speakers over by the shoreline behind him.

To his relief, she actually stops dead in her tracks up on hearing him call out her name, slowly turning around towards him again, just in time for him to have reached her side and unable to keep the smile from his face, now that she's finally here with him. 

"Hi." He huffs, just a tiny bit out of breath, not used to chasing after someone while finishing off a cigarette, like he just did.

"Hi." Tara replies, smiling shyly, her voice sounding sweet like honey, as she's blinking her long lashes innocently up at him.

But Jax isn't fooled in the least, everything that just happened comes back to him and his own smile fades again, replaced by a confused expression instead, when he throws his thumb up over his shoulder, pointing it back in the direction where he had been, and where she'd seen him and practically fled the scene. "Did you just ..." He starts, but then pauses, trying to think of the right words that will get straight to the point, yet will hopefully not spook her in to running away from him yet again. In the end, the most direct approach wins out. "Did I do something, I mean, are you avoiding me or something? Because it looked like you took off when you saw me standing over there by the keg."

Tara feels so embarrassed, having been caught in the act by him like this, and she almost wishes the sandy ground beneath her would open up and swallow her whole, just so she could avoid this awkward confrontation with him. 

She looks up at him in obvious embarrassment, can feel her cheeks blushing, but surely the orange glow from the bonfires along the beach camouflages everything enough so he won't even notice, or at least so she hopes. 

Tara's always been quick to think on her feet, so she nervously folds her arms in front of herself, and she starts to admit out loud. "You're right, I did." She says, but before Jax can even ask 'Why', she's already trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. "I ran ... because I got very drunk last night, and to be perfectly honest, I can't really remember if I said, or did anything embarrassing. So when I saw you standing over there, I guess I panicked a little, you know?" She gives him yet another awkward little smile, before she adds, "Sorry."

She tries so hard to read the expression on his face, wondering if he'll buy into her little innocent act or call her out on her bullshit, but when he returns her smile with a genuine one of his own, relief washes over her instantly. "Don't sweat it, I think your cousin got you out of there just in time before anything embarrassing happened. We've all been there, darlin', no reason to run."

Then he sighs, looking over his shoulder at the increasing crowd of teenagers gathering, and some even dancing around the bonfires, before his eyes meet hers again. "Wanna get out of here?"

Tara's taken back, she hasn't expected him to suggest something like that, and she can't help but let her eyes roam across the crowd behind him, hoping and wishing she'd see someone, anyone, she could use as an excuse to get herself out of this predicament. But of course, just her luck, there's not a single person she would call a close friend, so she stammers her words when she says, "Um, actually, I was waiting for Emma."

Jax instantly starts looking around for her, when he asks, "Where is she?"

Shit! "She ran into her ex right when we got here ..." Tara nods back towards the woods to her right, where she'd come from, "... back where we were parking, so ..." The words die down, but she hopes it's enough to derail his idea.

"Is her ex gonna cause trouble? Do you want me to come with, check up on her and him?" Jax offers, and under normal circumstances she'd take him up on his offer, find Emma and derail his plans to make time with her alone. 

But Tara's pretty damn sure Emma and Bright have climbed happily into the back seat of his Chevy together, and her best friend would not appreciate it one little bit if they got interrupted by her, with Jax Teller tagging along to bear witness to it all.

"Um, no, he's a nice guy, I think they're fine, I think she's fine." Tara sort of stammers out the words, hoping they make sense.

"Well, I don't see her anywhere." He replies, scanning the crowd one more time before turning his attention solely back to Tara. "But either way, we're not going very far." He nods in the wooded area behind her, "Just somewhere where we can actually talk, where it isn't so damn noisy. What do you say?" He smiles sweetly back at her, his usually light blue eyes seem much darker out here staring back at her now, beckoning her to go along.

Still though, a sense of panic rushes through her at the thought of being alone with him, her heart beating out of her chest. On one hand the last thing she wants to do is hurt Emma's feeling, but on the other hand, her blond, blue eyed friend was very likely going at it with one of her exes in a backseat somewhere, so what now? She honestly finds herself fresh out of ideas to get out of this situation with him.

Jax on the other hand mistakes her hesitance for fear instead, suddenly remembering and acknowledging the nightmare she's recently gone through. "Shit, I'm sorry." He starts apologizing, taking Tara by surprise yet again. "I wasn't even thinking that you might not feel comfortable with a walk through the woods, considering what happened."

Fuck being a victim, fuck being scared, fuck Michael Dunley!

With anyone else she might've actually felt scared to take a stroll through the forest late at night, but Jax was the one who'd saved her that night. He, along with Opie, were quite literally the two teenage boys she'd entrust her life with at the moment, so she can't stand the thought that Jax would even think she might be scared of him.

"No. I'm fine." She quickly shakes her head at him, at what he was implying. "You saved my life that night. So I'm not scared, ... well, at least not of you." She adds the last few words with a shy little smile on her lips, and is met in return with a little smirk from Jax.

"Well, then." He says, nodding towards the forest ahead of him, and when she turns around and starts taking the first slow steps, he casually drapes his arm around her shoulder and falls in step right beside her.

Tara can feel a warmth spread throughout her at his touch, at the sheer proximity of his body walking right next to hers, and she wants to shake her head, wants to shake the ideas of him and her right back out of her mind. Emma, Emma, Emma ... she just has to focus on Emma! 

Suddenly something dawns on her, and she glances up at him as they walk further away from the crowd, "Is Opie here?" Maybe there was still a chance they'd get interrupted by his best friend, if not by hers.

"Yeah, he's here." Jax nods, then adds, without falling out of step. "He took off with some chick he just met, they're around here somewhere."

"Oh, really?" Tara feigns interest, anything to distract herself from what she was feeling. "What's her name? Maybe I know her."

"Hmmm." Jax hums for a long second, trying to recall the name of the little brunette. "I think she said her name was Dana ... or maybe it was Donna? I'm not sure."

X

Author's Note: Sorry again for the longer wait. Life has been busy, words have been more slow. What do you all think of this though? Please leave me a few words if you can. Thank you.


	7. Oh, he's so dead!

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

"I don't think I know anyone named Dana or Donna." Tara replies, still trying to find something to occupy her mind with, something other to think about than the way he smells so intoxicatingly good, the sudden butterflies in her stomach, or that he has his arm around her and is leading her away from the party, to a more secluded spot to 'talk'. "Does she go to Charming High?" She adds, still trying to prolong this conversation.

"Naw, I don't think so." Jax replies, shrugging his shoulders along with his words. "I'm not sure where she's from?"

They don't walk very much further once they're past the tree line, coming to a stop near a small rock formation amongst the vegetation and trees surrounding them, and Tara can't help the feeling that Jax has had this particular spot in mind all along. 

Bringing the question to pop up in her head, just how many girls he's brought to this spot out here before her? But asking him that out loud would imply way more than she was willing to admit even to herself, so she bites her tongue instead, and vows that she won't let this turn into something like that. Because even if it wasn't for Emma and her feelings, she has no interest in being just another notch on his belt.

Jax glances back over his shoulder, past the trees, back at the party that's just now really starting since more alcohol has arrived, before he turns his attention quickly back to Tara right beside him. "This alright?" He asks her, gesturing to the almost flat rock, easily big enough for three or four people to sit on, strangely resembling something like a oversized couch made of stone, like you would see on 'the Flintstones', sans the armrests.

"Yeah, sure." Tara nods, ducks out from under his arm, and moves to climb up and sit.

"Wait a sec. Lemme clean that up for ya'." Jax says, stepping in her way and swipes both his hands in long strokes across the surface repeatedly, wiping away any loose dirt and leaves, before he holds his hand out for her to take, to make it easier for her to climb up to take a seat. 

Oh, he's good! 

"Thanks." Tara replies shyly, can't help herself but smile, undoubtedly flattered by the sweet gesture, and takes his offered hand, trying to ignore the spark of electricity that shoots through her when they touch, and wordlessly climbs atop. 

She can practically feel his eyes on her traveling up the length of her body, before she finally turns and sits, kicking her legs to scoot back against the other rocks, that sort of serve as a backrest, although a more uneven one than the slab they're actually using as a seat.

Jax easily climbs up and settles in the spot right beside her, leaning back, too, and letting out a rather content sounding little sigh. However, that sigh is utterly faked and staged, because even though he's happy she's finally here, and alone with him at that, he's suddenly feeling fucking nervous as hell. 

He hurriedly pulls his pack of cigarettes from his pocket, hoping that yet another one might do the trick and calm him again, holding it out to her first, but when she smiles yet shakes her head 'no' declining, he doesn't waste another second, fishing one out for himself and quickly lights it up.

From their position they have a pretty good view of the bonfires and the party, even though they themselves are shrouded by the shadows the foliage and trees around them provide, hidden away from prying eyes in the darkness of the night ... well, at least from afar.

They can still hear the music, along with the general buzzing of conversations from the crowd though, but it isn't loud anymore, and would be easily completely drowned out if him or her were to actually start talking.

Jax exhales the smoke out to the side of his mouth, away from her, and stares off at the party a distance away from them, just like she is doing right next to him. He's seriously trying to think of something to say, but fuck, ... her presence alone is so goddamn distracting. 

That little white tank-top barely conceals the black bikini top she's wearing beneath, and coupled with these daisy duke type cutoffs, has him thinking all sorts of impure thoughts, and making his fingers itch to explore all the smooth looking skin she's exposing tonight. 

He wishes he knew what the hell the matter is with him, or more importantly how to stop it, and get his head on straight again. He's been around hot chicks more times than he can count, yet none have ever effected him like this. What the hell is it about her that turns him into such a goddamn love struck idiot, unable to even form a fucking coherent thought?

He can't remember ever feeling this dumbstruck or flustered around any girl before, let alone one he's practically known his whole life. Well, known was probably too strong a word. 

He's sort of known her when they were much younger, remembers playing with her in elementary school, but strangely, what he mostly remembers about her from back then, was her missing almost a week of school when her mom had died. 

Then they've eventually moved on to Junior High, and playing wasn't really on the agenda anymore, they've each joined their own little cliques, and ever since, he's just known-of-her, curiously watched her from afar at school, at parties, at after-school-functions, or when he's seen her randomly around Charming, with her dad or her friends. 

Tara is a part of her own group of friends, and he has his, and they simply didn't really cross paths, mostly because they didn't really know each other, and assumed they're not having much in common. Last night at her house was sort of the first exemption to that, one he wasn't sure would be repeated anytime soon, unless forced by either him or her, somehow. 

And it suddenly dawns on him then, that it's really just some sort of vicious cycle; they don't know each other because they never talked, and they never talk because they didn't know each other.

It's the push he needs to finally snap himself out of his stupor, flicking the ash off of the end of his cigarette, before he glances over at her, because that is what he wants now. 

It's suddenly no longer just about getting his hands on her, he wants to get to know her. Wants to know what's going on in that pretty little head of hers. "We didn't really get to talk last night. How have you been?"

Tara glances at him, meeting his eyes, and even manages to smile back at him, ignoring the little jab about not talking to him last night. "I'm good." She nods, even smiles a little more, hoping it will bring more emphasis to her words, "Everything's really good. You?" Her heart is beating out of her chest though, as she's fighting her way through the lie. Nothing is good, nothing is good at all!

Well, shit! He hasn't expected this, and knows that the polite thing would be to simply accept her answer at face value, and reply to her with a similar meaningless platitude, but there is something about her facial expression that's off, in fact, there's something in her eyes that's way, way off, and he finds himself unable to ignore it now that he's realized it.

As a matter of fact, he almost wants to kick himself now that he hasn't noticed it much sooner, like earlier, when she has tried to run off. Now it all kind of starts to make sense, that expression on her face, coupled with what she'd revealed to him about a week ago, about not being able to finish that book, and the amount of alcohol she drank just last night alone, well, all of those things considered, it has him not buying her answer at all, not for a minute, not even a little.

He studies her face for just a tad bit too long for her comfort, as if that could help him read more into her thoughts, figure out what's really on her mind, and how to approach this. 

And she fakes yet another smile, but against her own better judgment, she can't stop herself from asking out loud what that look he's giving her is about, "What? What's that look for?" Oblivious to the fact that he's catching on to her, she even lets out a little chuckle, but it's completely mirthless, no actual humor in it, no matter how hard she tries to pretend and make it sound real, it just doesn't.

He takes in a breath, letting it slowly escape through his nostrils, when he raises his eyebrows at her, keeps watching her with intent scrutiny, his voice firm, yet sincere and edged with genuine concern. "You know you don't have to bullshit me, right? I mean, if you need someone to talk to, ... you can talk to me. I'm here."

She's still got that same pretend smile on her face, no longer just trying to hide her true feeling behind it, but also trying to hide the fact that she's taken aback by this sudden serious vibe surrounding them now. She wishes she could just take three steps back, and talk about that Dana girl and Opie some more instead.

But it's too late for that, she hasn't seen this coming at all, wants to brush off his words of concern for her, like she's been doing with everyone else around her. Wants to deny him the truth, turn back time and repeat her first answer a little more convincingly. But the look in his eyes is so intense and genuine, that she literally has to look away, avert her eyes from his, fighting tears from forming out of nowhere, when her fake smile finally crumbles under the weight of it all. 

And the worst part is, that this isn't about her feelings for him anymore, or even Emma's feelings for him either, ... this is something altogether different, and way more serious and heart wrenching than just the maneuvering around a mutual crush between friends.

She knows that some things just don't stay hidden in a place the size of Charming, that people like to talk and gossip, but it was usually just surface stuff, an abridged version of events, not really getting down to the nitty-gritty. They all just want to throw their two cents in, from her nosy next door neighbors, the random lady at the grocery store, right down to her customer's at the damn diner that she works at, all of them pushy and annoying, sure, but she can handle it because nobody really ever digs too deep.

And she'd thought that she'd convincingly fooled them all, hidden the real drama, or rather trauma away inside her head, behind fake smiles, friendly nods of agreement and meaningless small talk. 

She was under the assumption that nobody is paying close enough attention to what she is doing, or saying, or how she is acting. Didn't think anyone would care enough to read between the lines, look behind the facade, because why would they bother? But as it turns out she isn't as convincing or invisible as she thought she was, at least apparently not to Jackson Teller! Who would've thunk it?

Jax reaches over, tips her chin back up, lifting her face with the tips of his fingers so she'll meet his eyes. "It's alright, you know, to not be alright after everything that happened. I was there, so ... I know that night was scary as fuck." He points to himself with his other hand, and adds, "I was scared, and I wasn't who that psycho was after." 

She knows he's just trying to help, doesn't mean no harm by what he's saying, the opposite really, but it doesn't help her in the least, instead it breaks something open she hasn't allowed herself to feel until now, and now it hurts.

Jax swallows away the lump that has formed in his own throat now, when he sees her face fall, her chin beginning to quiver. Her tank top, short shorts and bare skin, all that superficial shit is instantly forgotten, when all he can stare at are her eyes, and the tears that are forming in them now. Oh shit, he didn't mean to make her cry!

Without a second to spare, he grinds the rest of his smoke out against the rock right beside him, flicks it away from them and then quickly drapes his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side.

But his comforting embrace is actually what causes the tears to fall now, his touch has somehow opened the floodgates, and so she cries, her body shaking a little with each sobs that escapes her, resting her head against his shoulder, while he tries his best to sooth her, even though he's not really sure how to go about doing that exactly.

He works at a garage, his day to day interactions mostly consist of rough bikers and burly mechanics. Well, there is his mother, the only constant female presence in his life, but she's not the type to wear her heart on her sleeve, instead she prefers to hide her feelings behind angry outbursts, sarcastic one-liners, or a clever combination of both. She's never been much of the crying-on-your-shoulder type, with maybe the only exception being when his little brother and his father had died, at least as far as he can remember.

It is no secret that his good looks and charm has always made him popular with some girls. He flirts, he dates, he makes-out, and some of them even turned into steady girlfriends for a while, but none of those girls have ever broken down crying in his arms before, because none of them have ever been through the shit Tara's been through.

So what the hell does he know about something like this? What is he supposed to say or do to make her feel better, make her stop crying? Or is he supposed to encourage her instead, tell her to let it all out? 

He doesn't have the faintest idea, because at sixteen years of age, he can honestly say he's only ever held a crying girl in his arms once before tonight, coincidently it just so happens to be the same girl, less than two weeks ago, on the night of the break-in after they'd realized her keys were missing.

He's relying solely on his gut feeling when he grabs her, lifting her over his thigh, so she can sit sideways between his open legs, right in front of him now, just so he can pull her even closer into his chest. And with her face hidden beneath his chin, in the crook of his neck, she's so close that he can feel the wetness of her tears falling against his skin. 

One strong arm is firmly holding her against him while he's continuing to run his other hand down her long brown hair, mimicking something he remembers his mother used to do to Tommy and him, back when they were still little and upset about something. 

He goes on whispering to her, universal words of reassurance, things like "It's okay." or "It'll be alright.", simply because he's not really sure what else to say or do. But he must be doing something right, judging by the way she's starting to calm down and relax against him now, wrapping her arms around him, holding onto him, and it strangely warms his heart, sort of comforting him in return.

Then he instantly wonders though, if he should be feeling bad for the way this is making him feel, because he obviously knows that it's fucked up to get any sort of enjoyment out of her being distraught. It's not like it's her misery that he's actually enjoying, it's not like that at all, he realizes that her tears mean pain, and the last thing he wants is for her to be in pain of any kind. He'd take all her pain away in a heartbeat, take it on as his own if he only could.

And it isn't about sex either, he's not getting hard or off on the fact that she's clearly hurting, but still, he can't change the way he likes that she's allowing him to hold her in his arms like this, or the way she's holding onto him now, too. 

Despite the underlying guilt he's feeling about all of it, he suddenly realizes that he just likes the thought of someone needing him like that, or if he is being completely honest with himself, he specifically likes the idea of someone like Tara Knowles possibly needing someone like him!

Tara startles him out of his thoughts, when she suddenly speaks up. "I'm actually glad he's dead." She admits out loud, but sniffles one last time. "Does that make me a bad person?" She asks, when the tears have finally stopped flowing again. 

Her words take Jax by surprise, but he's quick to answer, doesn't even have to think about it, his voice firm and unwavering, shaking his head when he says, "No, it doesn't, Tara. He was the bad person." He lets out a heavy sigh when he lets her question sink in a little more, can't help himself from placing a kiss against the top of her head, against her hair, before adding. "He deserves what happened to him, trust me, you've got nothing to feel bad about."

His words are followed with a long stretch of silence from both of them, while he continues to hold her, continues to comfort her, even though she seems to be no longer crying.

But then Tara's suddenly pulling away, bracing herself with her hand against his chest, trying to sit back up again, while she's also trying to ignore the feel of his lean muscles beneath the palm of her hand. Jax reluctantly lets go of her.

Then she wipes at her face, sort of hiding from him behind her hands, before she moves back to the seat beside him, instead of right in front him. She can feel her cheeks flaming now, for a second feeling tongue-tied, incredibly embarrassed to have fallen apart like this in front him, she feels like such an idiot.

"I'm sorry." She suddenly huffs, afraid to meet his eyes, still straightening herself out, tucking on her clothes, wiping her fingers under her eyes some more, slightly horrified at what she might look like right now after all that crying. "God, I'm so embarrassed, I can't believe I did that, ... I feel so stupid." She adds, brushing her hair out of her face.

Jax can't take his eyes off of her, because even now she's so fucking pretty. He leans forward, bends his outstretched legs at the knees, so he can drape his arms casually over them, because he's already missing having her to hold onto. 

And he can see how flustered she is, can't stand the thought that she regrets letting him close, so he quickly replies, "Hey, it's all good. No reason to feel stupid. If you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm your guy. Alright?" He directs a smile at her then, his eyes sparkling sweetly, and when she finally dares to look over at him, she can see that he really means it, that he's being genuinely okay with what has happened, and she nods her head at him in reply, returning his smile with one of her own, "Yeah, okay."

There's a long awkward silence as they keep looking at each other, but then something shifts, strangely changes, ... in the air, between them, or maybe both. You can feel it, like something calm has settled over them, evaporating all this unnecessary tension that's been hanging between them all night.

Jax sits back up, leaning back against the rock behind them, pulls another cigarette out, and quickly lights it. And Tara sort of follows suit, leaning back again, too, trying to relax, making herself comfortable again, as much as you can be comfortable sitting on a sofa made of stone.

He is the one that finally breaks the ice, coming right out with what's still on his mind when he says, "You wanna talk about it?" And it's not just a meaningless offer, he's genuinely invested now, and wants to know what she's been holding in that has caused all those tears to suddenly bubble up to the surface.

At that, Tara gives him a bewildered look, like he has just said something outrages, but when she doesn't reply right away, he adds, "I'm serious. I'm a pretty damn good listener." He actually grins. "And a hell of a lot cheaper than a shrink."

She can't help it, smirks now, too, when she catches the expression on his face, hears the teasing and playful tone in his voice, so she replies teasingly herself. "Oh, really? And here I thought you were just another pretty face, Teller."

He has just flicked some ash off the end of his smoke, was just about to bring the cigarette back to his lips, but freezes the movement of his hand with some dramatic flair in mid air, staring at her instead, and raises his eyebrows to new heights when he says, "Did I hear that right, Knowles? Did you just call me pretty?"

Tara shakes her head, trying to suppress the giggle that's rising in her throat, and ignore the little laugh that's coming from him when he sees her face. She's not really sure how to respond to that, at least not in a way that won't land her in hot water with Emma, so she quite literally keeps her mouth shut.

Nevertheless, Jax's face grows serious again just moments later, when he takes a drag from his cigarette, before he says, "Seriously though, what's going on?"

Their eyes meet, and he can see the hesitance in hers reflecting back at him, when she replies, "It's personal stuff. Embarrassing stuff."

"I can keep a secret, I mean, who the hell would I tell anyways?" He throws back at her rhetorically, but Tara gives him a very pointed look, cocking her head to the side, her eyebrows raised now, and the meaning crystal clear, so he adds, "If you're asking me not to, then I won't tell anyone, including Ope ..." He gestures to her and him, and adds, "... about any of this."

Then he pulls the collar of his t-shirt away, as if he's trying to get a look at it without taking the whole shirt off, when he says, "Besides, pretty sure you've already left some snot on my shirt from all that crying, so really, ... how much more embarrassing can this possibly get for you at this point?"

Tara fakes outrage for just a second, before they both start laughing again, and she reaches over, running her hand over his shirt, "That is so not true, I did not get any snot on you."

Finally, the last of the laughter dies down, and Tara pushes her hair back, letting out a heavy sigh, looking up towards the sky, even though she can't see the moon from here, because the treetops above them are touching, forming a canopy of sorts, made entirely of branches and leaves. 

She shakes her head to herself for a second, thinking that she must be crazy for even considering to spill her guts to some guy she barely knows, but deep down she knows she's already made up her mind. She's not sure how, but he's managed to convince her.

And before she even knows what she's doing, she's already doing it, she's talking. A little awkward at first, but it seems to get easier with every word that's spilling from her lips.

She's telling him about her fears of being alone at home, how she can't sleep until her dad gets home, feeling scared of her own shadow, and how she feels she can't tell her dad or Linc any of this, because they both need to work, can't stay home with her forever, etcetera, etcetera.

Suddenly the conversation just comes so easily, so unforced. Words just jumbling out, and neither of them is second guessing every word either, when they begin to talk about everything and anything else. About that night, about what everyone in Charming's been saying, about the other victims that weren't as lucky as her, and so on. 

It's strange to feel like this, but it seems so natural, like they've known each other their whole lives, and have done this many times before. Despite everything, they even find themselves laughing out loud at times, mostly due to Jax, trying his best to lighten the mood every chance he sees, pressing his luck with a witty or sarcastic remark to take some of the sting out of the rather depressing subject. Loving the way it seems to take the pain away, out of her eyes, even if just for a short moment. It makes it all worth it.

Then Tara suddenly catches sight of Emma with Bright at the party. They're a little ways away, but she recognizes them without a doubt, and for the first time she dares a glance down at her wristwatch to check the time. "Shit" She curses, but instantly thinks that that can't possibly be the right time. Her watch must be busted.

With a flash of panic in her eyes, she reaches for Jax's arm, to get a look at his watch, before she meets his eyes, "Is it really this late? Have we been talking for over two hours?"

Jax glances at the time, and nods, "Yeah. Why? You've got a curfew or something?"

"No, it's not that." She shakes her head, but starts scooting to the edge already, so she can slip off, and Jax follows, while she further explains. "I'm spending the night at Em's, and she's probably wondering where the hell I am, where I've been."

"Right." Jax acknowledges her concern, and falls into step right beside her, even though he really doesn't want to leave this place, or end this alone time they got to share out here away from everyone. 

He's really got no desire to head back to the party at all, but he will, since that seems to be where she's headed. Come to think of it, he should probably check up on Opie, too. 

But just before they step through the tree line, where they can be seen by everyone else, Jax excuses himself to stay behind. "I'll catch up with you in a sec, gotta take a leak."

"Okay." Tara replies, honestly a little relieved that Emma won't see her emerge side by side with Jax, and keeps on walking without looking back, while Jax stops and turns away from her.

But her relief doesn't last long at all, when Emma storms in her direction as soon as she comes into view. And judging from the looks of it, the expression on Emma's face, she's not amused at all. "What the hell happened? I've been looking everywhere for you, where have you been?" She sounds more like an outraged mother, than her best friend.

Tara gulps, a sudden rush of guilt coming over her, when she's trying to find a way to explain that she's been alone with Jax this whole time, without it sounding as bad as it does inside her head. 

"Sorry." She mutters, and starts with, "I lost track of time." She's being deliberately cryptic to buy herself another second to think on how to best word this, but instead she finds herself wondering why it is so much easier for her to talk to Jax, than it is right now explaining something completely innocent to her best friend.

"Lost track of time how?" Emma asks, clearly ticked off, but also confused, and she is quite literally opening her mouth to add something else, to press her for more details, when her eyes shift away from Tara's guilty looking face and suddenly are focused on something behind her brunette friend instead. 

It's all happening so fast, but there behind Tara, stepping out from between the same trees where Tara has just come from, is none other than Jackson Teller. And in that split-second Emma still catches a last glimpse of him with his hand zipping up his fly, before he quickly drops his arm back to his side as he's coming closer towards them. 

Emma looks back at Tara, speechless, and hurt, but then suddenly seething, even as Bright appears right beside her, the same instance Jax caught up with Tara, too.

Jax catches Tara off guard when he drapes his arm casually around her shoulder again, smiling sweetly down at her, before he looks back at the blonde and nods at her in greeting, "Hey, Emily. How are you?" 

Emily? Shit, ... adding salt to the wound! Tara can't help but bite her lip.

Emma doesn't reply though, as a matter of fact, she doesn't even look at him right now, she's too pissed at Tara. "I need to talk to you. Alone." She hisses, then grabs Tara a little roughly by the arm, pulling her along with her, out of earshot from the guys, and everyone else around them.

Jax watches after the two girls for just a second, before he turns towards Bright, who he knows from school, and nods at him in greeting. "Hey, man."

"What's up?" Bright replies, nodding back, his eyes on the girls as well, watching them have some kind of argument.

Jax puts a cigarette to his lips, shielding the flame of his lighter with his hands again when he lights it, before he asks, nodding towards the girls, "Any idea what that's about?"

Bright shakes his head, "No clue." He gives Jax a pointed look, raising just one eyebrow in a cartoonish way. "Chicks, man!"

Jax nods in agreement, before he pries his eyes away from Tara for just a moment, and turns so he can let his eyes scan the rest of the shore and party, before looking back at Bright again, "You seen Opie around?"

Bright looks over his shoulder, scanning the crowd behind them for a moment as well, before he replies, "No, I haven't. He's here?"

"He was." Jax replies, letting his eyes roam over the crowd again, because his best friend's usually pretty easy to spot, the way he towers over most, but he's still nowhere to be found.

Just then, a short burst of a police siren can be heard, followed by something being said over the speaker, when a cop car pulls up out of nowhere near the shore, drawing everyone's attention at once. 

Jax and Bright both turn towards the noise, some kids are already running off, some yelling "Cops" in warning, when Jax's eyes land back on Tara. He quickly drops the cigarette he has just lit, and starts running towards her, but she's too caught up in her fight with Emma that she hasn't even noticed the panic that's beginning to break out.

"Hey, babe!" He yells before he even reaches her, causing both the girls to turn their attention towards him now, wondering who he's calling 'Babe', looking back at him slightly puzzled for a split-second, before they see what is starting to unfold behind him.

"We gotta go." Jax huffs, but doesn't even completely stop, just slows down enough to grab Tara firmly by the hand and starts pulling her along with him, back to the dirt road in the woods, where everyone's parked at. 

Tara clings to Jax's hand, trying to keep up with him, but he's wearing sneakers, while she's in flip-flops and is clearly at a disadvantage here. 

She glances back over her shoulder for just a split-second, but it's long enough to catch Emma's eyes one last time, still full of anger and hurt directed at her, before the blond, blue eyed girl disappears out of sight with Bright instead.

They've had the occasional fight before. It's what best friends do, they fight sometimes, but tonight was very different. Both have spewed some very hurtful things at each other just moments ago, and for the first time in a long time, Tara's not sure if they can come back from this.

"That son of a bitch." Jax curses, bringing Tara out of her thoughts about Emma when he finally slows down, and turns towards her. There's outrage in his voice when he says, "Opie took the truck. Unbelievable, that son of a bitch just left me, took the goddamn truck." He looks around for a second in a panic, trying to think of how to get out of here now, or if he sees anyone they can catch a ride with, mumbling under his breath, the sentiment undoubtedly directed towards Opie, "Oh, he's so dead!"

She might've just lost her best friend, apparently Jax lost his ride, and truthfully she's not really sure why they're even running from the cops, but Tara can't help the little smirk that appears on her face in spite of it all, because he's just too damn cute when he looks this pissed off.

She decides to put an end to his misery when she says, pointing further down the road. "My car is right over there. I can take you home." 

X

Author's Note: Finally, the new chapter is done. Love it? Hate it? Leave me a few words, please. I can't wait to hear what you think. Thanks for reading!


	8. Emma is not my sidekick

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Tara tugs on Jax's hand to get him to follow along to her car now, but mid-way there, she reluctantly lets go of him, to dig into the pockets of her jean shorts to find and retrieve her keys instead.

She steps up to the driver's side of the Cutlass, quickly unlocks the car, climbs inside and reaches across to the passenger door to pull the lever to let him in. 

Tara starts the car the same instant when Jax pulls the door all the way open, but instead of climbing in, he leans down and glances at her in obvious surprise, his face illuminated by what little moonlight filters through the trees, and the headlights from all the other car starting up all around them.

He finally speaks up just when the engine roars to life, "This is your car?" He isn't entirely sure what he'd expected her to be driving, ... maybe some Herbie-looking Volkswagen Beetle, or even some beat up piece of shit Chevy Nova like the one he himself owns, but definitely not this black on black nearly pristine looking '67 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

Tara makes a gesture with her hand for him to get in, "C'mon, get in." So he finally slips in and settles in the seat beside her, closing the door when she answers him, "I wish it was mine, but it's not, it's my dad's." 

She quickly turns the car around on the narrow dirt road, which isn't easy with everyone else doing the same, trying to leave at the same time, but at last she merges onto the dirt road, following the line of cars out of here, slowly moving, bumper to bumper, just a trail of red rear lights in the darkness ahead of them.

She tries her best not to think back on her fight with Emma from just moments ago, but can't help hearing some of her best friend's ugly words, along with her own, play out again in her head. 

'I can't believe you would do this to me, Tar? You know how much I like him!

Em, just let me explain. We were just ... -

So all that talk earlier, about wanting to live your life, about wanting to do it for the first time with someone you like, were you talking about him the whole time? Do you like him?

No, of course not ... I mean, I do ... I like him, but I wasn't talking about him.

Did you sleep with him? Or did you just suck his dick?

Jesus Christ, Em, what the hell is wrong with you? I can't believe you would even ask me that.

Don't even try to act all offended, I saw him close his pants back up with my own goddamn eyes.

Nothing happened, we were just talking, Emma. What you saw was -

Jax Teller and you just talked? In the woods, alone, for two fucking hours? Bullshit! ... You know if you did this, you're just another notch on his belt, right?

You don't know what you're talking about. He's not even like that.

He's exactly like that. He's got a reputation, some random blowjob in the woods means nothing to him! So if you blew him, I hope you know you also blew your chance of it being anything more than that, too!

You know who else has a reputation, Em? You do, and half the shit they say about you isn't true either, ... even though you're acting pretty fucking nuts right now, so maybe some of it is true after all. And for the hundredth time, nothing happened, Em! I swear!

You really wanna talk reputation, Tara, really? Because let me tell you something, you've got one, too. And let's not forget that I know you better than most, so you can keep on going around and play the victim-card, pour-little-me-that-almost-got-raped, ... I know that the sweet and innocent act you've been putting on lately isn't who you really are. So don't even try to act like I'm being the crazy one here, when you're being a backstabbing bitch, who snuck off to be alone with Jax behind my back.

Jesus Christ, all we did was talk, while you were busy screwing Bright. But you know what, Em, I'm done ... I'm fucking done defending myself, because I haven't done anything that needs defending. At least not yet!

What's that supposed to mean?

Has it ever occurred to you that I might like him too, has it? Do my feelings for a guy ever get to trump yours?

You do realize the only reasons he's even given you any attention, is because he feels sorry for you about what happened, and of course the fact that you're making it so goddamn easy for him.

Right, because you weren't trying to make it easy for him when you pushed your boobs in his face last night at my house ... I could have really used a friend last night, Em, but you were too busy drooling after him, and then you just left. Oh, and let's not forget the real reason you didn't stay over, we both know it wasn't because I was too drunk, but if you hadn't left, you wouldn't have gotten the chance to spend another five minutes pressed up against him when Opie gave you both a ride home. But yeah, I'm the one being a backstabbing bitch? 

Now behind the wheel of the car, with this slowly moving traffic, her heart is beating out of her chest again, while she's trying to fight the urge to cry at what all of this now means for her friendship with Emma. They've been friends for so long, she can't picture what it's like to not have her ... actually, she can picture it, a little. Knows from the few rather meaningless fights in the past what it is like, and truthfully, it was hell. 

Besides the emotional toll it took not having your best friend to talk to and confide in, it was also awkward having to maneuver around mutual friends, trying to avoid each other at parties, or walking into a class room, the cafeteria or some assembly at the gym, and suddenly not knowing your place anymore, not knowing who to sit with, this devastating feeling of being utterly alone in a room full of people. It hurt and it just ... it sucks!

So all of that is whirling around in her mind, as they make it out of the little forest, past one of the bridges that leads off of the island they'd been on in the middle of Lodi Lake, and just as they begin to think they're home free, the car in front of her begins to slow down considerably, then comes to a stop altogether. 

She quickly pushes her brakes, the Cutlass jerking to a sudden stop, Jax bracing himself with his hand on the dashboard in front of him, while she's glancing up in the rearview mirror, hoping the car behind them will react just as quickly, and won't plow into the rear of her dad's precious car. She'd be so dead!

"What's going on?" Jax asks, not able to see anything from his seat on the passenger side.

That's when Tara tries to shake her thoughts of Emma, and focus all her attention on her current company and the ride back to Charming instead, which has somehow come to a screeching halt completely. 

She lowers her window, cranes out her neck to see up ahead and curses under her breath when she once again notices the red and blue flashing lights of police vehicles. Everyone that left the party in a hurry, has driven straight into a trap!

"It's a road block ... or traffic stop, ... whatever it's called." Tara huffs in annoyance, gesturing with her hand up ahead out of her still open window. 

She's glancing over at Jax, when a rush of panic is beginning to come over her at the implication, and all the spiteful words exchanged with Emma are all but forgotten again, because she's distracted by her current predicament instead.

"Probably just checking for drunk drivers." Jax replies, not really concerned, until he notices the change in Tara's facial expression. "What?" He asks, then adds with raised eyebrows and a hint of a smile tugging the corners of his lips upwards, "Don't tell me you've been drinking, Knowles?" He's obviously teasing her, because he's held her close enough to kiss, close enough to know that there is no alcohol on her breath.

"No, it's not that." Tara seems unfazed by his flirtatious teasing, hesitates though, but quickly realizes there really is no use, she's about to get busted, with Jackson Teller in her car. "I just ..." she bites her lip, glancing over at him in embarrassment, "I don't technically have my license yet."

"What do you mean by technically?" Jax looks back at her confused, then his eyes take in the row of cars still at a stop ahead of them for just a second, before he focuses all his attention back at her. Damn, she's cute when she's flustered!

Tara starts to explain, the words jumbling out of her mouth rather fast, leaving no doubt just how nervous she is at the moment. "My birthday isn't for another two and a half weeks, so I still just have my permit, and since my dad's out of town for the night, Em and I, we sort of borrowed his car, thinking he would never find out, but now ..." 

She looks up ahead, noting the caravan moving again, so she let's her foot off the brakes and slowly starts rolling again, too, "But now I'm gonna get busted, and probably lose my permit, can completely forget about ever getting my license, and my dad will probably ground me for the next decade, or ... some shit." She adds the rest with a frustrated shake of her head.

Then she taps the brakes, slowing the car to a stop again, and Jax snaps out of his stupor, "Alright, well, ... I've got a license, so let's just switch seats then."

"What? No, we can't." Tara looks back at him with an are-you-crazy expression. "They'll catch us." Her eyes dart cautiously in the direction of the cops, as if they might even be overhearing their conversation right this moment.

Jax shakes his head, and tries to sound reassuring, "No, they won't. Not if we do it before we get too close. Trust me, I've done this before." He quickly lowers his window, leans out and glances up at the cars and trucks ahead, counting at least six or seven of them, still at a dead stop. "Alright, as soon as we move and stop again, you put the car all the way in park, scoot as far forward in your seat as you can, and I'll climb in behind you. And then ... you'll climb over here."   
Well, he sure makes it sounds easy enough!   
He meets her eyes, "What do you have to lose?"

He's right, and it's not like they're doing it because she's been drinking. She wouldn't drink and drive, could easily pass a sobriety test to proof that, so if they do get busted, she'd just tell them the truth, that it was just about her license or rather the lack thereof. It's definitely worth a shot, considering the consequences she'll have to face if they don't at least try.

A minute later, the car ahead of them starts moving again, and Tara lets her car slowly roll forward, too, and just like Jax has instructed her to do, upon stopping, she shifts the gear all the way in park, scoots to the front edge of her seat, and waits for Jax to slip onto the seat behind her. 

Considering the rather limited cabin room of the Cutlass, he manages to do so much faster than she'd anticipated him to. So she tries to hurry just as quickly, but is suddenly flustered and feeling trapped, because his crotch is right behind her butt, and his thighs are to either side of hers, and the damn steering wheel is so much larger than in the average car cutting into her thighs, since she's sitting so much forward, and she finds herself struggling to move at all, let alone move over into the passenger seat. 

"Here, lemme help you." Jax says, realizing her dilemma, and before she knows what he means by that, he's already grabbing her by her waist with both his hands and pulls her back towards him, right onto his lap, helping her out from her predicament of being weirdly wedged between steering wheel and his much bigger and muscular frame. 

He releases his tight grip, just casually letting his hands rest on her waist now instead, and she's able to pull her left knee up closer to her chest, her foot on the edge of the seat now, and he gives her another boost with his hands, helping her so she can slide off of him and over onto the seat beside him.

Truth be told, the whole act was pretty fucking awkward. She's sure she's blushing, can feel the heat rising to her cheeks, and her body is also tingling all over because of the way he'd just grabbed her and pulled her against his groin, but she tries her best to shake the feelings and the images his move has conjured up in her head. This is neither the time, nor the place.

So instead she just straightens herself out, pulling down the hem of her tank top that rode up a little, while Jax reluctantly pries his eyes away from her, taking note of the cop that's walking down alongside the row of cars now, flashlight in hand. 

"Shit!" He curses, gaining her attention. "Seatbelt, babe. Let's not give 'em anything to bitch about." He adds, reaching up over his own shoulder, before he's looking up to follow his hand now in confusion, realizing there's nothing there to grab.

"There's just a lap belt." Tara clarifies, as she's buckling herself in quickly, and Jax manages to pull the belt across him and click it in place just in the nick of time before the deputy appears by their side, shinning the flashlight into the cabin of the car in passing, but doesn't stop or even bother to say a word to them. 

Tara raises her hand up to her heart in relief and lets out the breath she didn't even realize she's been holding, before she glances over at Jax to meet his eyes, only to find that they are already fixed on her. Then they both look over their shoulder at the same time, their eyes following the retrieving form of the policeman walking further down the line of stopped cars behind them.

They relax back into their seats just as the vehicles start moving, so Jax puts the car in gear and lets it slowly roll forward until they come to a stop once more. Then their eyes meet again, both taking in a deep breath and subsequently letting out another sigh of relief. 

Jax flashes her a toothy grin then, his dimples showing on his clean shaven face, and even in the darkened interior of the car, his blue eyes are shinning back at hers like sapphires, and ... Jesus Christ, it does things to her insides that she's honestly never experienced before ... ever!

So in return Tara can't keep the mischievous smirk from her face either, still trying to wrap her mind around everything that has happened this far, and moments later they both can't hold back any longer and begin to laugh out loud simultaneously, happy to have gotten away with it.

X

They stop at a twenty-four hour burger joint, where they sit, eat and talk for just a little bit, before they get some milkshakes-to-go and get back on the road again. The rest of the ride back to Charming is rather uneventful in terms of trouble with the law. Mainly because Jax purposely keeps the car right on the allowed speed limit, not wanting to risk getting pulled over at all again, because the thought of her getting grounded would pretty much ruin the rest of his summer plans. 

The radio is playing in the background of their lively conversation about all sort of random things, like random books they've both read and liked, the latest movies that have been showing, or any other upcoming parties in Charming or the surrounding little towns they might both end up at, amongst many other things. 

All in all, they once more find that they enjoy each other's company so much, and that words and the banter with each other comes so natural, so easy, that it kind of bewilders them both, yet neither is willing to actually admit that little fact out loud, least of all to each other.

They've passed the Welcome-to-Charming sign a while ago, and Jax slows down as he takes the turn onto Piney's road, but brings the Cutlass to a stop a little ahead of the yellow house when he takes notice of the pickup parked in the drive. Whatever Opie's reason had been to leave him behind, it had apparently not deterred him to head back home. 

He shifts the gear in park and looks over at her, meeting her eyes yet again, but Tara points out the obvious, before he can. "Looks like Opie made it back alright."

"Yeah." Jax replies, with another glance towards the truck, and the lights that are on inside the house, raising his eyebrows, "Looks like it."

"Has he ever done that before? Leave you like that, I mean?" Tara asks curiously, but when she sees the little flash of annoyance in his eyes, she instantly regrets asking.

"No." Jax shakes his head, then adds to clarify, "Well, I mean, if he was trying to hook up with a chick or something, yeah, maybe, but no, never like that ... never without giving me a heads up at least." As soon as the words have left his lips, he knew he's probably just over-shared more than he should've.

"Still, he's probably worried. And wondering where you are." Tara states, and honestly believes it, too, not at all surprised or put off by what Jax had said. She has spend enough time around her guy friends that things like this don't offend her in the least.

"You know, you're probably right." Jax nods his head in agreement, "And he fucking should be worried ... Anyways, what are your plans for the rest of the night?" He suddenly questions her, meeting her eyes with a hint of mischief in them when an idea comes to him how to make Opie suffer and make him pay for his crime a little bit longer.

Tara points at herself in surprise, "Me? Hmm, I don't know. I don't really have any plans now." She says, shaking her head. "I think it's safe to say I'm not crashing at Emma's place tonight, so I guess I'll just be going home."

There's a sudden flash of something in her eyes that Jax can't decipher at first when she says those words, but he remembers their earlier conversation at the party, how she said she can't sleep when her dad's not home and it suddenly dawns on him then. "Well, I'm not sure what happened with Emma and you earlier, but I'm pretty pissed off at Ope myself." He glances at his wristwatch. "Feel like getting a movie? The rental place is still open for another twenty minutes?"

X

Jax is busy studying the wall with the newest releases, while Tara's randomly walking through the aisles, trying to appear casual while she's looking for something interesting, even though she's beginning to seriously panic on the inside, all the while hoping it doesn't show on her face. 

It turns out it's fucking hard to focus on picking a movie, when all you can think about is the fact that the boy you have suddenly developed an irrational crush on, the boy who was the reason you just had a huge fight with your best friend earlier, has asked to crash on your couch for the night. Tonight of all nights, all alone in the house, just the two of you, because your cousin went back home to San Diego and your father is out of town again, too.

And worst of all, you were so caught off guard by this unexpected request, that you just agreed, ... in hindsight probably way too easy and way too quickly, too. But dammit, there is just something about the way he explained it all, combined with the sweet and downright harmless look in his baby blue eyes, that you just couldn't say no to, even if you had tried.

It sounded innocently enough the way he proposed it, simply needing a place to crash, because he wants to make Opie suffer by having him wonder where he is all night, yet at the same time he can't go home, because his mom and Clay usually plan some romantic evening whenever they assume he's staying out. 

And the last thing he wants is to walk in on his step-dad and mom doing it, like on the dining room table or some shit like that. He'd only half joked that the last time that happened, it scarred him for life, and he hasn't set foot into the laundry room of their home ever since.

The pissing-off-Opie thing is a little bit out there, she admits, because she really can't picture Opie to deliberately leave Jax behind without having a good reason. She figures there's got to be more to the story than that, but Jax is still too pissed about that to give Opie even the chance to explain himself. 

But the second thing, about not wanting to be walking in on his mom and Clay, that she gets one hundred percent. Mostly because she can still remember walking in on her dad with Laura, the woman he started seeing about a year and a half after Tara's mom had died, and let's just say there's just some things you can never un-see, no matter how much you wish you could.

She's so lost in her thoughts, and those damn butterflies in her stomach, that she hasn't even noticed him walking up behind her until he casually runs his hand up her back, before he drapes his arms around her shoulder like he did earlier tonight. "Find anything good? I think Frank's getting impatient with us. We're the last people in here."

Tara tries not to stiffen under Jax's touch, looking up at the clerk near the register rhythmically tapping his fingers in irritation against the counter, while he's watching the two teenagers like a hawk. 

"No, not really. You?" She asks, even though she can see that he's got nothing in his hands.

"No, all the good new shit is already checked out for the weekend." He says, but then suddenly reaches for a movie right in front of them. "What about this one? Have you seen it?" He holds it up for her to see.

Tara looks perplexed at his choice, "True Romance? Um, no, I haven't."

"Me neither." He says, turning the video over and holding it in front of her, so she can look at it too, before he leans even closer into her, dropping his arm from her shoulder down to her waist instead as he reads the premise of the movie out loud.   
His voice level and unwavering, as if he is the actual narrator in the trailer for the movie. "True Romance is the story of two unlikely lovers - Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette - whose whirlwind romance propels them into a dangerous game of high-stakes negotiations and high-speed adventure. The pair find themselves in unexpected possession of a suitcase full of valuable mob contraband, which they plan to take from Detroit to Los Angeles. There, they plan to sell the goods and begin a new life, but the gangsters - and the police - have other ideas." 

He turns it over to the front cover once more, giving it a good look, before he reads that as well. "Stealing. Cheating. Killing. Who says romance is dead?" He glances down at her right beside him, smirking when he says, "What do you think, Knowles? Are you up for some True Romance?"

"Sure!" She answers before she can think better of it, her whole body is practically buzzing from the cheer proximity to him, in combination with that dazzling smile he's giving her, as he's walking her back towards the register now to pay. 

Jesus Christ, I am so dead ... Emma is going to fucking kill me!

X

They decide to stop at the twenty-four-hours-convenience store that contradictory to its name, closes overnight during weekdays, and only truly stays open around the clock on weekends, like tonight.

Tara mainly wants to pick up some ice cream to eat while they'll be watching the movie, quite literally needing something to cool her rising body temperature down a bit, while Jax insists on getting some microwave popcorn, along with some other snacks and then adds a six-pack to share between them as well. 

"This is Charming, everyone here knows who we are, Jax." Tara touches his arm to gain his attention, shaking her head at him, before she physically pulls him back towards the coolers, trying to stop him from carrying the beer over to the register, whispering now when she adds. "I don't care how real your fake ID looks, there's no way in hell this is going to work, Teller."

"Relax, I know this guy, we've got an understanding, he lets me buy shit all the time." He says in a hushed voice, yet drapes his arm around her shoulder again, pulling her in even closer so he can whisper in her ear, "I slip him an extra five to pocket for himself, and he turns a blind eye, trust me, babe." He gives her his most charming smile now that makes her want to melt into a puddle by his feet. Needles to say, Tara concedes.

And moments later, true to his word, the twenty-something guy behind the counter, who Tara recognizes from Church, doesn't even bat an eye when Jax puts the beer in front of him, nor when he asks for a pack of cigarettes to be added as well. He simply starts ringing up the goods, no questions asked. 

Jax is already counting out his cash to pay, before he notices that Tara's still holding the pint of chocolate chip ice cream in her hand, so he quickly nods towards the guy, Leslie, at least that's what his name tag reads, "Hey, man, did you get the ice cream?"

Leslie shakes his head but without a further prompt quickly adds the price of the frozen desert and gives Jax his new total, just as Tara tries to intervene. "You really don't have to pay for me?"

They've already had this sort of discussion earlier at the little food joint in Lodi, where he'd tried to pay for her meal and shake, too. Tara had pointed out that it wasn't a date, and they were just friends. And when he said he'd pick up the tab as her friend then, she'd asked him if he made a habit of picking up Opie's tab, too. 

Needless to say, she won that argument, however this one doesn't look like it will go her way, since Jax is already handing over the cash to the guy behind the counter.

Tara can be just as stubborn as he is, so she tries to hand the money to Jax now instead, "Here, I can pay for my own."

But he quite literally waves the offered cash away with his hand, ignoring her request to take it, before he reaches for the bag of his stuff, and the six pack of beer on the counter while he says, "It's the least I can do, babe, considering I'll be crashing at your place."

Shit! Really, Teller? Do you have to announce your sleepover to all of Charming?

For the first time tonight she wants to smack him square in the chest for his loose lips. His, well-formed and mesmerizing and deliciously full, loose lips, but still, ... this guy, Leslie, goes to her church, and Tara has no doubt this will come back to bite her in the ass one of the upcoming Sundays. 

She can practically feel Leslie's eyes burning holes in her back when Jax, despite his full hands, holds the door open for her on the way out. There is enough gossip going around about her already, she really doesn't need to add any more fuel to the fire, but she fears the damage is already done.

X

"Where are the bowls again?" Jax half-yells from the kitchen, while looking through the cupboards to find a bowl to pour the bags of microwave popcorn into, right when the microwave beeps again, letting him know the second bag is done as well. 

"I'll be right there." Tara calls out, and moments later steps into the room, quickly shows him where to find it, while he's just gawking at her in awe, completely caught off guard by the new outfit she's changed into.

She gets a small bowl out for herself and proceeds to scoop some ice cream into it, before she glances back at him over her practically naked shoulder, "You sure you don't want some? There's more than enough."

He does want some, but not the damn ice cream!

"Nah, thanks, I'm good." He shakes his head along to his reply, then gestures towards the big bowl of popcorn he's holding in front of him, and when Tara turns her back to him once more, he goes back to admiring her from head to toe again, too. 

Even though she was wearing way less and showing much more skin earlier at the lake, she sure wears the fucking hell out of these black shiny spandex leggings and the grey oversized sweatshirt, that just barely falls passed the curve of her ass.

Tara fucking Knowles could give Jennifer Beals a run for her money, especially with the collar cut out like that, so it falls seductively off one of her shoulders, revealing the thin black strap to what he presumes must be her bra.

He's quite literally licking his lips when his eyes roam over her, unable to keep the toothy grin from his face when she bends over to get a can of whipped cream from the fridge to top off her ice cream treat with. Fuck, is she trying to kill me?

She puts the can back in the fridge, the rest of the ice cream back into the freezer above, and flicks off the kitchen lights on the way back to the living room, with Jax traipsing right behind her, hot on her heels.

Jax settles down on the couch, the bowl of popcorn on the cushion beside him as he reaches for one of the beers, using the bottom of his lighter in place of an bottle opener to pry the lid off of his drink, taking a first long swig, while Tara pushed the VHS tape into the VCR player and is now turning the TV to the correct channel.

"Want one?" Jax breaks her concentration, as she fiddles with the TV remote in one hand and the VCR remote in the other.

She bites her lip in indecision as she's looking back at him and the second beer he's already grabbed from the pack, just waiting for her to say yes. "Yeah, okay, just one though." She replies, the part about just having one is secretly more directed at herself than him.

The tape starts playing and she puts the remotes down on the coffee table in front of Jax, right as he holds her open beer out to her. Tara takes a quick sip, scrunching her nose at the taste, because truthfully, in her opinion, beer does not taste good, and she would not be drinking it if she didn't need something to calm her fucking nerves a little bit tonight.

She clutches the bottle in her hand, the previews starting to play already on the TV screen behind her, so she hurries to double checks that the front door is locked, before she flicks off the rest of the lights in the house, and finally allows herself to settle down on the old yet comfy couch with him.

She's pulling her bare feet up onto the couch, sitting down with her legs crisscrossed, Indian-style, with a pillow in her lap, and then she finally reaches and begins to eat her bowl of ice cream that has already began to melt. 

Jax on the other hand kicks off his sneakers and props his feet up onto the coffee table in front of them, crossing his legs comfortably at his ankles instead, and is already absentmindedly snacking away on the big bowl of popcorn that he's pulled onto his lap.

The opening credits for the movie begin to play and they start watching, yet both keep glancing at one another throughout the movie, to see the other's reaction to a scene, gladly realizing that it mostly matches their own.

Jax is mesmerized by her, by every little move she makes, from the way she licked the last of the ice cream from the spoon, to being envious of the beer bottle she's raising up to her lips to drink from. 

And she's no better off than he is. She's got butterflies throughout the whole show, wishing she knew what to truly make of all of this. Was he really just here to teach Opie some kind of lesson? Or was there more to it than that? 

On one hand, she's suddenly realized that she might wants it to be more, wants to believe in what Opie had said last night, that Jax might actually like her.

Yet every time she allows her heart to go there, or her mind to conjure up the possibility of something more to happen between them, she starts feeling guilty again, like she's betraying Emma once more.

Because even now, even after that ugly fight earlier tonight, it's hard for Tara to put aside their friendship, no matter how charming Jax has been treating her, and how handsome he is to look at. 

Truthfully, she could look at him all day and never get tired of the view! But it makes her feel bad, and she knows a relationship probably won't work out when it comes with such a heavy dose of guilt attached to it right from the start.

X

The end credits start to play and she leans back on the couch, lowering her feet to the carpeted floor, stretching her arms straight up over her head for a long couple of seconds, even letting out a yawn that she's trying to hide from him by turning her face away, before she reaches for the VCR remote, and start to rewind the tape already.

She flips through the TV channels, stopping on a rerun of an old ALF episode, but turns the volume almost all the way down, before she leans forward and starts to clean up the coffee table already, too. 

She puts her empty ice cream bowl, Jax's candy wrappers and the five empty beer bottles, two of which were hers, into the empty oversized bowl, before she stands, feeling just the tiniest bit of a buzz, and carries it all back to the kitchen. 

Jax tried to help but she is too quick, yet he still follows wordlessly right behind her, helping her on this end instead, throwing the trash away for her, emptying the remaining un-popped corn kernels from the big bowl into the trash can, while she starts rinsing the dishes. 

He leans back against the kitchen counter, his eyes taking note of her dogs food and water bowl, when something suddenly dawns on him, "Hey, ... where is your dog?"

Tara turns the water off, reaching for the dishtowel and dries her hands as she glances over at him just a few feet away from her, "He's at one of my dad's friends places, ... you know, since I was supposed to stay at my friend's house tonight."   
Tara's been so preoccupied with her confusing feelings towards Jax, that she hasn't realized until right this moment, without even her dog Sue here to keep her company, that she'd be completely alone in the house tonight, if it wasn't for Jax staying over.

And for the first time tonight, some of that guilt that's been eating at her is suddenly getting replaced by a sense of relief, at the thought of him being here with her.

"Right." Jax interrupts her thoughts when he recalls her plans of a sleepover with Em now, and suddenly curiosity's getting the best of him, "What happened between you and your sidekick anyways?"

At that Tara deadpans, speechless as she recites his words back in her own head, before she can't help but chuckle, "I'm sorry, my what?"

"Emily, or Emma? The blond chick? Your sidekick?" He starts to clarify, then pushes his hands in his jeans pockets, ever so casually, yet the way the muscles on his forearms flex make her heart palpitate. "What was she so pissed about?"

You ... she was pissed about you with me!

But that's even beside the point, because right now Tara's still reeling from the fact that Jax referred to Emma as her sidekick, when Tara has always seen herself in that role instead. "First of, Emma is not my sidekick ... if anything, I'm hers -."

"Bullshit." Jax replies, before he adds as explanation, "You're the one that catches everyone's eye first, babe, so ..."

"I doubt that." Tara quips back, even rolling her eyes at the notion.

"Well, it's true." Jax replies sounding sincere, "You sure as shit caught mine first."

Normally she'd be blushing by now, feeling flattered, but she's not at all, the opposite really, because she's literally not buying it, not even a little.

She's had her fair share of admirers, some boys just wanting to hook up, while other's wanted to date her. She's been told that she's pretty, or cute, or hot by plenty of them, so it's not like she sees herself as some ugly duckling by any means. 

But that being said, standing next to tall, skinny, tanned, blue-eyed, naturally bleach-blond, beautiful Emma, an ugly duckling is exactly what she becomes in a side-by-side comparison with her best friend. And truthfully, it's something she's come to accept a long time ago, so it doesn't really even bother her anymore at this point. What does bother her though is getting patronized about it, like Jax is doing right fucking now.

Tara's awkwardly tucking her long hair behind her ear, not really sure what else to say now, without it sounding like she's fishing for compliments, so she simply decides to move on and answer his first initial question instead. 

She obviously can't tell him the whole truth, so she at least tries to stick as close to it as she can. "The fight was ... Em was mad that I had disappeared for over two hours, and things kind of escalated from there, you know, we both said some shit we didn't mean."

"Whoa, wait a minute." He raises both his hands up, palms facing her way, studying her facial expression with way too much scrutiny, "You're just gonna ignore the fact that I just admitted that you caught my eyes first? No smirk, not even a teeny-tiny smile, no reaction at all, really?"

Jesus Christ, why can't he just let it go! Tara shrugs her shoulders, biting nervously on her thumbnail when she finally dares to meet his penetrating gaze. Her eyes conveying the doubt she has in what he's said, "What do you expect me to say, Jax?" She shakes her head, "Sorry, but I don't buy it?"

"You don't buy what?" Jax asks right back, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.

She folds her arms in front of herself again, ready to prove him wrong, ready to prove that he's a liar. "Emma looks like one of those girls straight out of a fashion magazines, so yeah, sorry, but I don't buy that I caught your eyes first, Teller." She shrugs her shoulders at him yet again.

"Oh yeah, you're right, she does look like right out of a magazine." Jax actually agrees with her, and Tara smirks, knew that she was right all along, until he adds, "She looks just as anorexic as they all do."

"No she does not." Tara replies sounding almost outraged, actually coming to Emma's defense, because that is not at all what she meant when she was comparing her to those models.

But then something else comes to mind that easily contradicts what he said, so she adds. "Just admit it, Teller, if it hadn't been for that break-in, you and I wouldn't even be hanging out, let alone talking. We'd still be blissfully ignoring each other like we have for the last school year."

"Yeah, okay, maybe you're right." He can acknowledge that she's got a valid point there, but still, he knows she's still wrong about the crux of the matter, because god fucking knows he's noticed her more than once over the last year or two. Hell, he's noticed her for much longer than that even, and he's always thought she was much prettier than her blond friend. "That still doesn't mean you didn't catch my eye, babe. It just means that you had a boyfriend the whole time, and I was still dating my ex, too."

Tara's trying to think of something to say for a second, and she still feels very much on the offense, still not really allowing herself to believe him, so in her quest to prove him wrong, she suddenly says. "Okay, if that wasn't bullshit just now, if you aren't lying, then give me an example?"

Jax is taken by surprise by her request, yet a very vivid memory from last summer comes back to his mind with ease, and so he starts to recount it solely for her benefit, "Near the end of last year's summer break, there was a party, someplace outside Charming, I think it was Darren Brenner's grandparents cottage, or some shit. Like a ridiculously oversized looking log cabin, had one of those huge staircases with one of those indoor balconies up top, that overlooked the main living space down below. Well, I was standing up there and saw you down there, I think you were trying to convince your boyfriend to dance with you. I guess he didn't feel up to it, so you went out there with some of your friends instead. And man, I couldn't keep my eyes off of you when you started dancing. It was crazy hot that night, and you had your hair up in a high ponytail, dangly silver earrings, a big oversized bracelet, too big, so it slid up and down your arm when you danced, but it looked great. You were wearing a blood-red colored dress, tight up top, kinda flowy from the waist down, with thin spaghetti straps that looked like they might snap at any moment. You looked amazing, but I swear, while everyone else around you was dancing for an audience, you were dancing like no one else was in the fucking room. I still remember Amy and I getting in a huge fight that night, because she was pissed that I kept ogling you."

"Yeah, okay." She hastily replies, because she wants him to stop talking now. Wishing she could will away the onslaught of more butterflies in her stomach. She's blushing uncontrollably now, her cheeks feel like they're on fire. 

She can't believe he would not only remember seeing her there, but the fact that he can recall what she looked like that night, is doing all kinds of funny things to her insides. Clearly she's not prepared for this kind of attention from him, so all she can think of saying is. "I think you proved your point. I believe you."

"You know those blushing cheeks look really cute on you from over here." He can't stop himself from teasing her now, feeling just a tad bit validated that he was able to convince her.

Now Tara actually covers her reddening cheeks with both her hands, wishing she could make herself go invisible right now, but since she can't she meet's his eyes a moment later, trying for a witty comeback, "Well, you, Teller, look very much like a jerk, who's trying to embarrass me on purpose, from over here." At that she cocks her head to the side a bit, before she actually sticks her tongue out at him.

Jax laughs out loud at that, he just can't help himself, when he adds, "Still cute, Knowles, still really cute!"

She grabs the dishtowel off of the counter and throws it right at him, but he manages to catch it before it hits him in the face, and throws it right back at her, but she can dodge it as well.

Tara can't help but laugh now either. What the hell else is she supposed to do now?

She tries to change the subject back to his sidekick comment, when she says. "You know the sidekick is usually the shorter one, and Emma's got at least an inch and a half on me."

"Well, shit, by that logic, I'd be Opie's sidekick, too ... and you know there's no way that's right, babe." He jokes, grinning ear to ear.

"So you're saying you're Batman, and Opie's your Robin?" Tara jokes back, smiling herself at her underlying insinuation.

"You totally made that sound gay on purpose, didn't you?" He asks in reply, but then chuckles, enjoying their banter and the genuine smile on her face way too much.

The laughter dies down between them, but they're still smiling at each other. 

"Are you tired yet?" Tara suddenly asks out of the blue. After all, it was already Sunday morning. 

Jax shakes his head though, "Not really, not yet anyways."

"Maybe there's something else on TV to watch?" Tara says, and with it suggesting to head back to the living room.

But this time on their way through the dining room, Jax notices the Stephen King book she'd showed him at the Hanna's last week, Gerald's Game. He grabs it off of the table, bringing it along and is holding it up for her to see when they reach the couch again, "Did you ever finish this?"

Now Tara frowns again, shaking her head no, and Jax instantly wishes he would've kept his big fat mouth shut, but he knows he can't backtrack now.

He sits down beside her, opening the book to the place of her bookmark. If he had to guess, he'd say she's got about a quarter of the story left to read. 

Jax is reading over the first couple of sentences on the top of that page when an idea suddenly comes to him. "Looks like I might have to break one of my golden rules for you, Knowles?

"What rule would that be?" Tara asks a little intrigued, while she's flipping through the TV channels to find something for them to watch.

"The one where I read the end of a book first." He says, meeting her eyes when she looks back at him.

"What do you mean?" She's not entirely sure what he's suggesting. Is he's gonna read it and then tell her what happens? Is that the idea?

"I'll read it for you ... you know, to you." He says so utterly indifferently, like it's the most normal thing in the world for teenagers to read to each other ... out loud. "That way you'll finally find out what the hell happens, ... put the last of this fucking nightmare behind you for good."

She's actually speechless for a moment, doesn't know what to say, because the whole idea is ... well, it sounds pretty fucking weird, but at the same time it's also incredibly sweet that he seems to care this much.

But her long pause has Jax speaking up again, wondering out loud, "You do want to know what happens, right?"

"I do." Tara replies with a somber sounding voice, still not sure what to really think of it, and how to respond.

"Alright then." He says, making up her mind for her when he leans back into the couch to get more comfortable, propping his legs back onto the coffee table again, too. "Let's do this."

Tara swallows the lump in her throat for a second, still not sure what to make of this, but at last she decides to just go with it, settles down onto the couch right beside him.

"I think I'm gonna start over at the beginning of this chapter though. That alright with you?" Jax asks, glancing over at her and when Tara simply nods, he's quickly turning a few pages back, and clears his throat before he begins to read out loud to her.

While Jax is already starting to read, she hurriedly flicks the TV off, grabs a blanket, props her legs up just like him, and drapes it over both their legs, before she clutches a pillow to her chest at last, feeling finally comfortable and truly ready to give him her undivided attention.

Tara watches him a little skeptically, still somewhat surprised, yet also intrigued by the fact that he's really doing this for her, especially considering that she's still not really sure what to think, or rather how to feel about it. 

Truthfully, she's a little afraid that even with him being the one doing the actual reading, she might still lose her nerves and will have to tell him to stop. She's just not sure yet what's going to happen, but she'd consider it a win if they're actually manage to finish the book tonight. 

She studies his face, takes in his serious expression when his eyes travel over the page in concentration. And his voice matches his appearance, sounding earnestly as he's speaking the words out loud. Dammit, even his voice is beautiful!

How is she going to explain this to Emma? She will never ever believe this!

X

Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait! I've got a mild case of 'writers-block' going on right now, so that's one of the reason why this chapter took as long as it did, but I'm so glad it's finally finished. I can't wait to hear what you think, so please leave me a few words with your thoughts. Thank you!


	9. There's a rumor going around

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

The not so far away sound of a car door banging shut is what has abruptly brought Tara out of her dreams and for a few fleeting moments she finds herself in a semi conscious state. 

She's still really tired though, so she tries to ignore it and hopes she can fall back asleep, nuzzles her cheek further into the pillow instead, and when the blanket at her waist doesn't budge as she tries to tug it higher, she lazily drapes her arm across her eyes to keep the light out instead. She hasn't slept this good alone in the house since before that night she'd gotten attacked, and she doesn't want it to be over just yet.

But before she can fall back into mindlessness, she's vaguely becoming aware that there's something or rather someone tangled up beneath the blanket with her, both her legs and feet seem 'stuck' and immobile somehow, but it's nothing unusual or something that alarms her in the least, because her dog Sue was known to get himself comfortable every which way. At least that's who she figures is partially trapping her under his weight, per usual.

She might've heard a small knock on the front door, but since she's not sure, and it's all quiet again now, she decides to simply ignore it, instead she finds herself struggling against Sue, to free her legs so she can roll onto her stomach to get more comfortable to doze off again. But when the knock becomes louder, and then the actual doorbell chimes, too, she can no longer ignore it and lets out an unladylike groan in frustration, right before a very sleepy, yet also very distinctively male sounding voice mumbles. "Think there's someone at the door, babe."

Holy Shit! Tara's head jerks up suddenly in alarm, taking in the man-sized boy lying beside her, and every memory from last night comes instantly flooding back to her now, fuzzy edged dream-like flashbacks right before her eyes, the party, the fight with Em, the diner, the movie, the beers, the book, along with the fact that it's Jax who she's shared the couch and a blanket with all night. 

The last thing she remembers after he'd finished reading to her, is sitting here watching reruns of ALF, but they obviously must've somehow fallen asleep here together, head-to-feet, so to speak, and it's now that she's realizing it's his body, his limps that are wrapped awkwardly around her, one of his long legs is wedged partially under her back, and it's him that's been keeping her feet pinned to the couch. 

An instant little blush creeps up her cheeks, suddenly aware of every inch of his body touching and pressing up against hers and vice versa, along with the realization that she's sort of, kind of, been snuggling with Jackson Teller all night without even realizing it. Yeah, she probably shouldn't have had that third beer while he had been reading to her!

The doorbell chimes again twice, whoever is out there is clearly becoming more impatient, and she's quickly wiping at her eyes and blinking herself fully awake, while pulling her legs, one at a time, out from Jax's grasp, and it's the extraction of her limps that's making him stir and turn over onto his side now, too, slowly blinking himself awake.

He glances over at her then, assessing her wordlessly with a sleepy, yet smiling expression lingering on his face. And he looks so good lying here like this, like he belongs, all tangled up in the blanket and the countless throw pillows scattered all around him. He's kind of bashfully scratching the back of his head while he looks at her, his hair all messy and adorable, that Tara struggles to think straight in that moment, because she never would've pictured herself waking up next to Jax like this ... ever!

"Morning." Again it's Jax who speaks up, stretching his arms overhead now, yawning lazily, then props himself up on one elbow and reaches up to rub the sleep from his eyes with his other hand, before he runs that same hand through his unruly hair, while his bright blue orbs seem to zero in on her once again across the couch from him.

"Morning." Tara replies, thankful that she manages to get the word out sounding somewhat normal, despite the fact that she's feeling flustered and is blushing all at once. She's noticed that he's stripped out of his shirt overnight, she's taking quick stock of her own clothing, relieved to see that she hasn't accidently undressed in her sleep, too, and then is scrambling to her feet to rush to answer the door. 

But before she can even make it two steps in that direction, she suddenly finds herself lightheaded and swaying back and forth after getting up way too quickly. But to keep herself from falling towards the coffee table, she overcompensates when leaning the other way, quickly realizing her mistake, but it's too late, she can't catch herself in time before she falls rather helplessly and awkwardly back towards the couch. 

With his eyes still fixed on her, Jax realizes what is happening, suddenly sits up just in time, and manages to grab her by the hips just enough to help her break her fall, letting out a surprised "Whoa" just before she lands right in his lap. She's so embarrassed. 

Could things get any worse this morning? The answer to Tara's internal question turns out to be a resounding yes. Because what do you know? There's no mistaking it, he's hard against her behind, she couldn't have missed it even if she tried. Oh. My. God. Kill me now!

"Are you alright?" Jax asks from behind her shoulder with concern in his voice, his hands already slipping beneath her sweater, rough fingertips grazing across her bare skin when he holds onto her by her waist as he gently, but quickly lifts her off of his lap and onto the couch cushion right beside him. The skin he's touched still tingling after he lets go of her.

"Yeah, just got up too quick." Tara manages to huff while avoiding to look over at him out of fear that her eyes might travel too far south on their own accord. That thought alone is making her already pink cheeks blush even more bright pink now, just as another round of knocks vibrate against the door, followed by more insistent ringing of the doorbell as well.

"Sorry." He says, clearing his throat, and despite her better judgment, his apology actually makes her meet his gaze for just a second, curious what he's apologizing for, until - much to her embarrassment - he explains. "It's just morning wood." Do not look at his dick!

Tara is horrified, truly horrified, yet she's forcing herself with everything she has to not let that emotion show openly on her face. She can't believe he'd actually bring it up, with words that is, but before she can even think about how to respond to that, or if she even should respond at all, she realizes that Jax suddenly seems a little flustered, too. "It's not because I was checking you out or anything, I mean ..." He pauses just for a split-second, biting his lip, before he decides to further elaborate, even thought Tara really wishes he wouldn't. "I mean ... I was checking you out and you already know that I think you're really hot, but it's just something that happens, you know, some mornings, ... so." Please shut up! Please, please, please shut up!

And that's when she suddenly realizes that Jackson Teller is blushing. Giving her a crooked little smirk, his cheeks tinted with just a touch of pink, but there's no denying it, he's definitely blushing, and it seems like such a rarity, like a never before seen phenomenon, that Tara has to force herself to look away from him and take a deep breath. Oh. My. God. 

Another knock and the doorbell rings again and again, interrupting the awkwardness in the air between them. Saved by the bell!

"Yeah, okay." She's not sure how she manages to speak, but glad that she does, and throws her thumb up in the direction of the door now. "I ... I'm gonna answer the door now." Please, God, if you exist, don't let it be Emma at the door!

Jax nods sitting up further, still smiling when she turns away from him, but out of the corner of her eye, she can see him yank the blanket off of him and readjusting himself in the jeans he's slept in. 

And somehow she can't help but smile a little to herself now, amused and intrigued that one of the notorious bad boys of Charming High somehow got flustered like this in her presence. Oddly enough, she's realizing it's making her feel less awkward, knowing she's got this effect on him in return. That this electricity she's feeling in his presence might not just be one-sided after all.

She runs both her hands through her long brown hair on her way across the room, and she can already make out Opie through the small glass triangles arranged in an arc-shaped window on the upper part of her front door.

She's already fearing the confrontation between Jax and him that is surely about to happen, so she dares to look back towards the couch again, meeting his eyes to warn him as she reaches for the lock on the door. "It's Opie." Then she quickly unlocks the door and pulls it open to meet the tall teenager's sorrowful eyes. 

"Hey Tara." Opie huffs, looking tired and almost lost as he hovers awkwardly on her small front porch, nervously scratching the back of his head before he lets his eyes meet her eyes right on.

"Hi Opie." Tara replies, giving him a sweet and apologetic smile, waiting for him to reveal why he's here, even though she's already got a pretty good idea why.

"Listen." He starts, still searching her eyes, but not making a move to try to step inside, or further intrude on her in any way. "I talked to some friends, and they said that last night at the party, they um ... they said they saw you and Jax take off together." He pauses for just a second, clearly gauging her reaction, before he continues. "So I was just wondering if -." But whatever question he was about to ask dies on his lips, his words stop abruptly the moment when Jax comes into view besides Tara. 

He's still shirtless, and with no belt his jeans are hanging dangerously low on his hips when he steps even closer to casually drape his arm around her shoulders. Tara would've surely felt tingles all over, had it not been for the angry expression that crossed over Opie's face that very moment.

"Hey bro. What's up?" Jax says, a smirk creeping onto his no longer blushing face, and as if on instinct he quickly pulls Tara further back into the house and out of the way, when he sees Opie seething and angrily step towards him now.

"You were here this whole time?" Opie's got venom in his voice, his jaw ticks with barely suppressed rage, looking furious as his hands ball into fists by his side, looming over Jax now who's actually backing away further into the living room. "All night, making time with her, and you couldn't have called to let me know? Are you fucking kidding me?"

But it doesn't take long for Jax's anger to rise in him as last night's events come back to him as well. "You fucking left, Ope. Took the truck and left ... without saying a goddamn word." He hisses back at him in defense, coming to a standstill right in front of his best friend, sizing him up now as if he was facing an enemy, before he pushes hard against Opie's chest, forcing him to take a few steps back again. "The fucking cops showed up, asshole, you were nowhere to be found."

Opie is fuming, and Tara can honestly say she's never seen Piney's son ever look this angry for as long as she's known him than this moment when he pushes Jax back in return, much more violently though, making the blond hair, blue eyed boy stumble awkwardly backwards, nearly making him fall, but he can catch his footing. 

And that's pretty much it, that's the moment when all hell breaks loose, and they charge at each other like wild dogs. They push and shove at each other, a few punches are thrown, but most of them thankfully don't really land where they're intended to, so instead they both somehow end up scrapping on the living room floor. Rolling around, mumbling curses at each other, trying to hold each other down, or choke each other out, while Tara watches on in horror from the sidelines, repeatedly pleading for them both to stop. 

But when they don't stop, and instead nearly knock over a small shelf, she finally has enough and starts yelling. She reaches for Opie's arm, since he's the one on top at the moment, and tries to pull him off with all the strength she can muster, but to no avail. 

"That's enough." She's almost screaming now, still tugging on Opie. "My dad will lose his mind if he hears about another fight in this house." That finally seems to be enough for both the boys to reluctantly, but slowly stop what they were doing. 

Opie backs off and Tara let's go of his arm, but is watching him wearily as he backs away while Jax scrambles back to his feet as well. She looks back and forth between the both of them, shaking her head a little, and scowling at them. "Are you done now?" This isn't how best friends are supposed to act towards one another. She can't help but think of Emma just as that thought crosses her mind.

"Sorry, babe." Jax runs his hands through his hair, giving Tara an apologetic look, but is caught off guard when Opie speaks up again. "Do you have any fucking clue how many people I woke up this morning trying to find you, dickhead?"

"Nobody asked you to." Jax spat back, the apologetic look he'd just giving Tara replaced with a angry scowl now as he starts arguing with Opie again. "You're not my fucking keeper."

"Yeah, right." Opie rolls his eyes at him, looking equally pissed if not more so. "And what was I supposed to say to my dad when he asks where you are? Or Clay, or your mom when she calls? With all the shit that's going on with the Club, you think telling her that you vanished last night would go over well?"

"I wouldn't have vanished, if you hadn't left without me. So not my fucking problem if my mom goes ape-shit on you, man." Jax snaps back at him furiously.

Another drawn out argument ensues between them, cussing at one another when they step closer towards each other once more, ready to start round two, or at least so it seems to Tara, which makes her quickly step between the two boys. One hand bracing against Opie's chest, the other on Jax's bare chest, trying to push the angry friends further apart again. "Guys, this is stupid. You just need to cool off and actually talk. You shouldn't be fighting, and you definitely cannot be fighting in here."

But it's in that moment the front door makes a creaking noise as it is further pushed open a bit, and all three of them turn their heads in unison towards the tall blond teenage girl frowning at them in return.

A rush of panic overtakes Tara when she meet's Emma's eyes. She takes in Emma's hurt expression that is quickly replaced with an angry frown, when the girl's eyes flicker across the room as she's taking in the scene in front of her with much more detail, noting Jax's discarded shirt and belt near the couch. The couch that looks suspiciously disheveled with the blanket, the pillows and even the couch cushions looking askew, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that it's leaving the wrong impression once again to Tara's formerly best friend.

"Em." Tara calls, but it's already too late, she's already turned on her heels and has stormed out the door again, with Tara quickly charging after her.

"Em, wait." Tara calls again with a raised voice, catching up with her at the end of the driveway where she's parked behind Piney's truck, and Tara realizes that there's three more of their mutual friends from the Charming High Cheerleading squat waiting in Emma's car. The passenger side glaringly empty, for what would've been her seat riding shotgun as usually.

"Would you just give me a minute to explain, please?" Tara says, sounding almost angry herself now. Not really directed at Emma, but she's mad at herself for how this must look to Emma, but also mad about the fact that she keeps finding herself in these type of situations where she has to keep defending herself. It's starting to get old!

Emma stops abruptly, as she reaches the driver side door of her car, her hand already on the handle, but she doesn't open it yet. Tara can see now that there's tears welling up in Emma's eyes when their gaze finally meets, and a powerful rush of guilt and regret shoots through her at the sight of it. She's never intentionally meant to hurt Emma.

"You know I actually came here cause I was sorry about our fight yesterday." She says with a high pitched tone of voice and sniffs while wiping at her face. But just a split-second later she raises her chin in defiance, her eyes drift to somewhere behind Tara, and the brunette doesn't need to turn around to know that Opie and Jax must've stepped out onto the porch behind her, drawing the attention of not just Emma to themselves, but all the girls in the car as well. 

"I can't believe you did this." She says, and before Tara can wipe at her own tears and form a reply to her, Emma has already climbed in behind the wheel again and is peeling out of the driveway in record speed.

"You alright, Knowles." It's Opie who asks, stopping next to her as Tara stands there with her arms folded in front of herself, looking longingly after Emma's retrieving car until she can't see it anymore.

She looks up at him then, nodding her head, the self-loathing and sarcasm evident in her voice when she replies. "Yeah, just peachy." 

Opie holds her gaze for a second longer, before he nods in some sort of silent understanding and then climbs into his truck and leaves as well.

X

Jax only asks her once what that odd confrontation with Emma was all about, but when his question seems to make Tara even more upset, he decides to drop the inquiry at once, realizing that she was in no mood to open up and talk about it with him. And as ridiculous as it sounds, the rejection stings a little considering how much she has shared with him the night before, combined with this overwhelming need of wanting to comfort and protect her.

But just like Opie and him, he figured Tara also needed time to calm down. He doesn't want to go, doesn't want to leave her when she's obviously very upset, but with the mood suddenly so gloomy, along with Tara saying that she actually wants to be alone, he reluctantly leaves her house shortly after. 

He walks over to Opie's place alone, not just to shower and change into a clean change of clothes, but also to try to straighten things out with Opie, too. Realizing now that their little spat has lasted much too long already.

When he gets there, he does just that. The short walk and fresh air has finally calmed him enough to allow Opie a chance to explain why he'd left the way he did, and also finally admitting that he probably should've let him know that he was staying with Tara, instead of leaving him wondering and worrying all night. 

All is not forgiven nor forgotten by any means, Opie is still grumpy, he has barely gotten any sleep the night before out of worry, and clearly still has a chip on his shoulder even after Jax apologized, but hopefully he'll come around in a day or two and things would go back to normal between them.

Without much else to do about the matter, he disappears into the bathroom and takes a long hot shower, and instantly his mind begins to replay everything that has happened with Tara, yesterday and earlier this morning. 

Overall, it has been a good night, ... a great night actually. He loves the fact that she'd opened up to him like she did out there in the woods by the lake, loves the other long talk they'd shared at the diner, as well as on the drive back to Charming, then the movie, and at last him reading the book to her, and their talk about it after. 

Being able to open up about her feelings and emotions about the night of the break-in, along with finishing that book out loud with her, he could just tell how cathartic it has been for her, and in turn in makes him feel needed. And he realized he loves feeling needed by Tara. 

That whole evening has been something else altogether. Jax can't recall having ever spend a night with a girl like this, leaving him with such an odd combination of emotions rushing through him all within the span of a couple of hours. 

When she'd started to cry on his shoulder, at first he'd felt at a loss of what to do, but then he'd suddenly felt that same protectiveness towards her again, that he'd felt on the night of the break-in. 

He couldn't recall ever feeling like this before for anyone else. That revelation, along with the comfortable, carefree and amusing conversation they'd shared the rest of the night, and not to forget the undeniable attraction he feels towards her, it's making his head spin and almost hurt whenever he tries to figure out, why or how she has this kind of effect on him.

When she'd fallen asleep on him, he'd momentarily considered carrying her to her bedroom, but then he'd changed his mind, selfishly liking the thought of sharing the sofa with her instead. So he'd adjusted the pillow beneath her head so her neck wouldn't hurt in the morning, had tucked the blanket carefully in around her and at last he'd flipped the TV off and made himself comfortable on the sofa beside her. 

This unquenchable need to be near her like that, and feel parts of her pressed against him beneath the blanket without actually being able to hold her the way he wanted to, had proven to be some sort of self-inflicted torture in itself, yet one he'd gladly endure any day or night if given the choice again. 

After the way she'd asked him to leave, he would greedily take what he could get, even if being with her turned his whole world upside down and made him feel so utterly confused.

He didn't get flustered, he didn't get tongue-tied, and he damn sure didn't get embarrassed like he did around her with anyone else. And if he was being honest with himself, knowing that she had this kind of power over him, it kind of scared him!

X

After Jax leaves, Tara busies herself with cleaning the house. She starts a load of laundry, wipes down the kitchen and bathroom counters, dusts and vacuums the whole house, and last but not least mops the kitchen, laundry room and both bathrooms, too. 

The work around the house however doesn't do much to distract her mind from working overtime, replaying every scenario of what might happen from here. 

She also keeps going back over everything that happened the night before and then this morning, not just with Jax, but the confrontations with Emma as well.

To say that she's confused and torn about her feeling is an understatement. There is an obvious and undeniable attraction to Jax. She feels comfortable around him, safe even. She finds herself able to talk to him and open up to him about almost anything without judgment, on top of the tingling skin and butterflies in her stomach his presence also seems to bring forth. The supposed poster child of bad boys had turned out to be sweet, caring, but also funny last night, and it was just what she'd needed. What she still needs, what she wants. She's had boyfriends before, yet never felt even close to what she's already feeling for him, and they've never even so much as kissed.

But then there was Emma. Her best friend since they were little. Her go-to person, the friend she'd always been able to count on no matter what. The hurt in Emma's eyes earlier has broken Tara's heart. She is so angry with herself that she simply had to send Jax away, because she suddenly realized that his presence made her throw caution to the wind, it made her stupid and careless in regards towards Em's feelings. And Em's feelings should matter more than some boy she barely knew, right?

When she finally takes a shower and get's dressed for the day, she's still no better off than before. Her heart is torn in two. She realizes that she has strong feelings for Jax, but she can't help but wonder if repairing her relationship with Emma should matter more? Shit, this growing up stuff really sucks sometimes!

She knows that Jax is attracted to her as well, he's made as much crystal clear, but with a heavy heart Tara convinces herself that physical attraction doesn't equal feelings. Not for boys at least. Sexual attraction doesn't equal love, for them one can exist without the other!

With that in mind, she decides to calls Emma right then and there, trying to apologize and explain how things have gotten so out of hand, but she's not there, so she leaves a message with her mom instead, asking for a call back as soon as possible.

Hours go by while she waits for Emma to call back, with Tara just watching TV by herself, mindlessly flipping through the channels, a constant frown edged into her face at the thought of how her life got so twisted up lately. 

Was it really about Emma and Jax, or was she simply different now that she'd been so viciously attacked in her own home. The memory of that night makes her shiver involuntarily, and then she almost groans to herself when she can't stop herself from wishing Jax was here with her again to distract her from her fears. 

When the phone finally rings, Tara rushes to answer it, there's a spark of disappointment though when it's not Emma on the other line, but her father instead. Something came up, a work meeting got pushed back to tomorrow morning, so he won't be home tonight either, and a rush of panic runs through her realizing that she'll really be home alone tonight. She doesn't have Jax's number, but she fights the urge to call Opie to get it.

She knows that she shouldn't, so she doesn't. Instead she leaves one more message with Emma's mom, even though she could've sworn she heard Emma talking in the background, and it nearly made her break down in tears right then and there.

But instead Tara gathers her courage, refusing to falter and call Jax for support, and refusing to let Emma's still cold-shoulder get to her. 

Maybe to truly get better, she needs to figure out how to be okay by herself, without either one of them. Without Emma and without Jax, and overcome her fears to find her old independent self again instead.

The plan sounds good in theory, but she still picks up Sue from their friend down the street just a little while later, then checks the lock on every window and door, and at last falls asleep with a big knife lying on her nightstand beside her again. So much for being brave!

X

Emma never called her back, and as much as she tries to tell herself that it doesn't matter, she realizes that she's lying to herself. It does matter. They have been friends for far too long, it doesn't make sense that they can't have a talk to figure this whole thing out. 

So since she has to work this morning, she makes plans to stop by Emma's house after work to face her in person instead in hopes of patching things up.

A little while later Tara steps through the door at Hanna's diner bright and early, ready to start her morning shift for the day. She smiles a fake smile at her boss and her co-workers, not wanting to let on that her heart hurts for so many different reasons, along with the fact that she's practically tossed and turned all night, and has barely gotten any sleep at all.

She doesn't let her sadness, nor her fatigue slow her down though. She hurries to take and fill orders, smiles and chats cheerily with her customers and her co-workers and overall manages to put on a show for everyone around. Refusing to let anyone see past the facade she's put forth so successfully.

It isn't until her friends Rayna, Joe and Joe's girlfriend Cassidy walk through the door of the dinner over five hours later, that her fake smile slips from her face for the first time since she's gotten here. There's a worried, yet also curious expression on their faces, that makes her heart speed up, a bad feeling settling in the pit of her stomach, and she's grateful to have held off on taking her break until now.

She slips through the door that leads them into the deserted alley out back, Rayna, Cassidy and Joe hot on her heels, clearly something pressing on their minds and eager to get a moment alone with her. As soon as the heavy door has fallen shut behind them, Rayna starts to talk, Cassidy chiming in every now and then, but Joe holds back, standing there with his arms crossed in front of his chest, while he just nods along to what the two girls are sharing with her.

Tara's face falls, turning as white as a sheet, and she's starting to feel sick to her stomach as she tries to process what her friends are telling her. 

Apparently there had been a party yesterday, at which some gossip about Tara had been brought to her friend's attention. None of them knows where or how the rumor got started though, since all three of them had heard almost the same gossip verbatim from completely different people, but the fact that so many people seem to know about it, made the story sound that much more credible than if it had just been told by one person alone.

Tara sits down on the wooden bench, her whole body is shaking, bracing her elbows on her knees, hiding her face in her hands, while she wills her nerves to settle down again, and fights with everything she has to keep the tears from forming behind her closed eyelids. 

This is the last thing she needs right now. She vows to herself that she isn't going to cry, she won't allow herself to fall apart, and let those vicious lies get to her and humiliate her even further. Fuck them ... fuck them all!

The rumor that is going around is that she had supposedly spend the night with Jax, doing the deed, and not for the first time either. But for whatever reason, they felt the need to mention that him and Opie had gotten into a fight, too. Which had people further speculate now about some sort of threesome-gone-wrong-turned-love-triangle, pointing out that they'd both been fighting about her right there in the middle of her house.

The thing that sticks out the most about the story though, is the fact that nobody even knew about the actual fight between Opie and Jax, only Emma had caught part of it. Which means that it was Emma who'd obviously contributed that part to the lie, giving everyone else even further ammunition to start spreading these false accusations. 

That revelation devastates her almost as much as the ugly rumors themselves.

Rayna sits down beside her, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her back to comfort her, while Joe pulls Cassidy into his arms as they both look at her with worried eyes. 

Jax and her hooking up could be a possibility, since plenty of people saw them leave the party together, and even though it's nobody's business, she wouldn't feel the need to lie about it if it was actually true. 

But the part about her also being involved with Opie, that part is just mean, outrages and downright gross. And her friends, the three of them, know Tara well enough to not even have to ask if the rumors are true. 

In that moment it's startling to Tara how much your perception of who your friends truly are can change within a time span of a measly twenty-four hours. Fuck Emma, too!

"Do you want me to talk to Hanna?" Cassidy volunteers. "I could tell her you're not feeling well, I bet she'll let you go home early."

"No." Tara's head finally snaps up and she meets each of their eyes, one after the other. "I don't wanna leave Hanna hanging, not for something stupid like this."

"Are you sure?" Joe speaks up for the first time.

Tara nods her head. "Yeah, I'm sure. I've only got like less than three hours left anyways, I can make it."

"Thank you guys, for telling me." She stands, and both Cassidy and Rayna embrace her in a group hug, with Joe joining at last a few seconds later. 

"Of course. You would do the same for us." Rayna answers, and the other two nod in agreement.

X

Never in a million years could Tara have pictured this scenario. And never ever would she have believed that her best friend could contribute to some ugly rumors that are meant to shame her like this.   
The hurt she's feeling now is on a whole other level than what she felt the night before. She feels betrayed, deeply betrayed by her closest friend, and it's a very hard pill to swallow.

She powers her way through the next two grueling hours, with her head held high, a smile on her face and she manages to roll her eyes and replies with a sarcastic remark at the absurdity of it all, when some guys she recognizes from school dare to ask her which one of the two was better in bed, Jax or Opie?

Tara is tough though, putting on her bravest face yet, and relief's flooding through her when those two guys finally leave, but to her dismay, they not only left her a tip on the table, but also a note with both their phone numbers, and a not so subtle message about wanting to get together with her. Ewww ... gross!

She pockets the money, rips the crude note into tiny little shreds, and clears the plates off the table into the bus bin behind the counter, but when the bell above the front door of the diner chimes, she looks up to the incoming customers out of habit, and instantly wishes she could disappear into thin air right then and there.

Jax smiles and nods in greeting at one of the other waitresses, working on the other side of the diner, and Tara finds herself holding her breath, hoping he won't notice her and find a place to sit in the opposite direction instead.   
But of course, no such luck and instead his eyes roam the place, until they land on her, and Tara quickly averts her eyes, pretending she hasn't seen him and begins to busy herself with wiping down the table in front of her.

"Hey, Knowles." He says, stepping up beside her, smiling at her as he's watching her work. "Busy day?"

"Hey ... you." Tara replies sounding unusually awkward, glancing in his general direction, without actually daring to meet his eyes. 

She doesn't answer his question though, ignores him instead. She has no interest in engaging in a conversation with him right now. Not when more people from school could be stepping in through that door at any moment, and would undoubtedly get a kick out of seeing him and her standing here talking.

So she's acting busy as she keeps cleaning and wiping down tables that she's already cleaned before. It's hard to ignore him though, when he's standing close enough that she can actually smell him. The mixture of cigarettes, motor-oil and his own personal fragrance is emanating from him and filling her nostrils. What makes it even worse is that it isn't an unpleasant smell, she almost wishes it would be though, because that would make him a whole lot easier to ignore.

"When are you getting off work?" He asks next, trying again to get her talking. And she contemplates not replying again, but realizes that that might draw even more attention to them.

"A couple hours." She lies. She's off in less than an hour, but she hopes this answer will make him leave, not willing to wait that long for her.

"Got any plans later?" He asks next, following right behind her as she moves on to the next table over, still trying to look busy, but running out of things to clean and rearrange.

Surely he must've heard the rumors by now, too, right? Tara wonders, but then frowns at the thought that those kind of rumors never affect boys the same as they affect the girls. Whenever someone is rumored to have had sex, boys are the studs, but the girls are the sluts! Everybody knows that.

At that thought she lets out a exasperated sigh, before she finally stops the pretense and stops cleaning just long enough to look up at him. "Please just go, Jax." He frowns now, too, even though he raises his eyebrows curiously, but she leans in even closer now before she adds in a low voice. "You being here will only make it worse."

He narrows his eyes at her in confusion now, before he asks in an equally low voice. "I'm making what worse?"

Tara actually focuses solely on his face for a moment, realizing now that he might've really not heard yet. Her voice sounding unusually timid and downright shy when she says. "You haven't heard?"

"Heard what, babe?" Jax gives her yet another clueless look, and when he sees Tara swallow hard, he actually reaches out for her, tugging on her arm. "What the hell is going on?"

Tara glances around the room, making sure her few remaining customers have still full cups, and seem to be content at the moment, before she nods in the direction of the small hallway that leads to the bathrooms, and Jax follows her wordlessly around the corner and out of sight.

They come to stand face to face, and Tara's just about to open her mouth to explain when the door to the men's room opens and a guy she recognizes from the High School basketball team steps into the hallway, giving both of them a curious glance, but smirks and nods at Jax in wordless approval as he passes by.

Jax caught the way it made Tara wince though, and with a tug on the door beside him that reads 'Employees only', he pulls her along with him into the small cleaning closet and quickly shuts the door again behind them. "Talk." He orders her in a whisper, anxious to find out what is going on, and well aware that she doesn't have much time to spare and hide out in here with him.

Tara swallows the newly formed lump in her throat, she's so embarrassed, but pressed on time she decides to get it over with already, when she whispers in reply. "There a rumor going around."

"What kind of rumor?" He interrupts, eyes still fixated on her.

"That I slept with you ..." Tara presses her lips together for just a fraction of a second, immensely proud with herself that she doesn't blush when she finally adds "... and Opie, too."

Tara's not sure exactly how she thought he would react. She almost feared that he'd laugh, brush it off as if it was nothing, after all, these kind of rumors weren't exactly new to him, and not really as damaging to him as they were for her. 

But what she didn't expect is the way he flinches, as if someone had struck him out of the blue when she added the part about being involved with Opie as well.

"Seriously?" He asks grimly. And when Tara simply nods her head in reply, his grim expression changes to downright angry. Not angry with her, but rather for her, and his jaw ticks as he looks down at her and listens, while she goes on to give him the quickest version of what her friends had told her earlier.

"Jesus Christ." He curses under his breath when she's done, closing his eyes as he swipes a hand down his face in obvious disgust. 

She's not happy or smiling or anything like that by any means, but she definitely looks a bit relieved, and can't deny the fact that she's glad knowing that he's not amused about it either. Because in Tara's mind it strangely means he's on her side in this. Doesn't it?

"I have to go back to work, Jax." Tara says, and he opens his eyes again to meet hers at her words. 

"What time do you really get off?" He asks now, as if he just realized that she might've not told him the truth earlier.

Tara glances down at her wristwatch, no time to spare. "In about forty minutes." She admits, even though she's not sure what he'll do with that information.

He gives her a quizzical look, his eyes narrowing at her as he does so. "If I wanted to stick around and wait for you, would you be cool with that?"

Five or ten minutes ago the answer would've been a resounding no, but now things suddenly seem different yet again, and before she knows what she's doing, she's already nodding her head at him. "Yeah, I'm cool with that."

The frown on his face is almost gone again, replaced with the smallest hint of a smile instead. "Cool."

They both step out of the closet then, but just as they shut the door behind them, a group of two girls and two guys walks past them towards the bathroom. The girls keep on walking, engrossed in a conversation amongst themselves.   
The guys on the other hand stop short when they realize it's Tara, giving her a scrutinizing gaze from head to toe, yet barely seem to even register Jax behind her. And something about that rubs Jax the wrong way instantly. 

Tara tries her best to look unfazed by the obvious way she's being ogled, yet despite her best efforts she can't help the way her cheeks begin to blush in embarrassment now.

But then Jax drapes his arm around her shoulder and practically growls at their gawking schoolmates with a warning. "Either one of you looks at her like that again, I'm gonna assume you want me to fucking end you."

The way they suddenly shy away from her, and leave without so much as a sarcastic remark or a knowing grin, makes Tara look up at Jax beside her with both appreciation and awe. Gone is the oddly sensitive boy that read to her, gone it the boy that laughed and joked and flirted with her, and gone is the boy who got a little flustered and even blushed just yesterday morning in her living room, instead he's replaced by this protective don't-fuck-with-me version of him, and even though she's heard of this side of Jackson Teller before, she's never got to witness it up close and personal like this with her own two eyes. 

And if she doubted it before, it's in that moment that Tara realizes that Jax is without a doubt not your average run-of-the-mill bad boy. He seems to be a much more complicated guy than she'd originally thought, with lots of different layers to peel back still, different versions of him to marvel at, but she also realized that she's come to like all those different versions of him so far, each of them for very different reasons.

Jax is completely oblivious to the way Tara's looking at him though, because he's too busy continuing to glare after the two boys disappearing into the bathroom further down the hallway. 

He's barely able to contain his fury at the thought of these rumors making the rounds around town. He's learned to grow a tough skin, he can take it, but Tara shouldn't have to. She's already dealt with too much in the last couple of weeks, and he can't stand the thought that she'll be the target of gossip yet all over again. 

He's not really sure how he's going to fix this for her, all he knows is he'll fucking try, even if it means beating every sleazy looking guy that gives her the eye to a bloody pulp on her behave.

X

Author's Note: I'm very sorry for the long wait between updates. Between real life keeping me busier than usual, being sick for a whole week, and this chapter giving me a hard time again, it took much longer to get it finished. I hope you guys like it. Would love to hear what you think? Thanks for reading.

P.S. I had a few readers asking me not to abandon my stories, and I just wanted to assure you that I won't leave any of them incomplete. So if it takes a while longer for me to update, it's just because life got in the way. I'll update my other story as soon as the next chapter is ready. Thank you for your interest in my stories, I appreciate it very much.


	10. Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

X

Tara has been feeling downright awful since she's found out about the latest rumors, but since then her mood, and the general atmosphere surrounding her, has somewhat improved, mostly thanks to Jax who's accompanied her home, and some of her friends, who've all come over after she'd gotten off of work earlier this afternoon, with the goal of distracting and cheering her up.

She had barely gotten any sleep last night. She'd tossed and turned repeatedly. For one, because she'd found herself alone in her home again with her father still out of town, and two, because she hadn't been able to stop thinking and worrying about her fight with Emma, and her feelings towards Jax and what to do about them.

So naturally, after her sleepless night and after having been on her feet for a long and draining eight hour shift at the diner, along with the emotional stress about these latest rumors she'd just heard about, she has expected to be dead tired, but as she looks around the smiling and laughing faces of her friends surrounding her on the front porch of her home right now, she's feeling wide awake instead. She's still tormented on what to make of everything, but for the time being, her friends have succeeded in their quest and she's feeling more relaxed than she has in days.

She can't even really fathom how she's gotten from there to here, from that anxiety laden ugly place where she was feeling hurt, embarrassed and pissed off to now, smiling with her friends in spite of it all. All she knows is that the old saying might just be true, laughter is in fact the best medicine, and they've been doing that a lot over the last couple of hours. 

Her friends doing everything they could think of to get her to laugh along with them, and even though she mostly just smiled, it was definite progress from the tears that she'd truly wanted to shed earlier. So she's welcomed the temporary distraction with open arms for the time being.

After she's gotten off work, they've all just lounged around her living room, music videos had been playing nonstop on MTV in the background, and they had raided Tara's kitchen pantry for anything edible, before devouring the pizzas and breadsticks they'd finally ordered from Giovanni's after everyone pitched in a couple of bucks.

But now it is late enough that it is already dark outside when they all decided to head outside, after Tara's dad finally made it home from his out of town trip. 

James Knowles doesn't mind at all that Tara has friend's over at the house, in fact he often mentioned that he preferred it that way, since this way he knew exactly where his daughter was and with whom. 

Which meant he didn't have a problem with the group of teenagers to stay a little longer, he did however excuse himself to head to bed after his long days of meetings and travel, and Tara did take that as a silent cue that it was probably best to start calling it a night as well.

So here they stand now in front of her home, scattered around her driveway, and despite the late hour, and the slight breeze, it's still warm, almost hot even.

Rayna can't help herself when she catches a glimpse of Tara's dad through the blinds as he goes about the house to turn some of the lights off. She turns towards Tara with a cheeky smirk and winks when she says. "You know, for an old dude, your dad is a total hottie."

"Not that again."Tara groans in reply and rolls her eyes as the rest of them smile and even laugh out loud at Rayna's comment, while even Cassidy turns her head back towards the house to see what caused Rayna's outburst of forbidden admiration.

"I'm serious." Rayna glances back at the house once more herself, but by now Tara's dad is already out of sight again, when she adds, "I'd totally do him." Before she slowly takes another drag from her cigarette, barely able to contain the laugh from spilling out of her at the look of horror that crosses Tara's face.

Tara feigns to stick her finger down her throat, making an exaggerated gagging noise. "Gross, Ray, thanks a lot for that image ... I think I just threw up in mouth a little." 

Tara, along with everyone else, figures that Rayna's just trying to be funny for her benefit, yet she's also well aware of the little crush Rayna's developed for her father since they became friends in seventh grade. 

And let's face it, Rayna's not the only one, more than once have friends commented on the fact that James Knowles is handsome or 'a cutie', much to Tara's displeasure, because there's nothing more awkward than having to listen to your girlfriends gushing about your old man.

"I wouldn't because he's your dad." Rayna grins. "Obviously." She adds for good measure.

Still, right now even Tara can't help but smile as the rest of her friends let out yet another laugh at their exchange. If there's one thing she's used to by now, it's Rayna's rather crass way of speaking her mind when she's feeling comfortable with the people around her, which clearly she must be feeling now, considering what she'd just said.

Tino and Jax, to Tara's relief, change the subject when they start to talk about all the upcoming parties happening over the next couple of weeks. There seems to be something going on almost every other night, although a few parties are as far away as Stockton.

The conversation continues, as everyone talks about which party might be worth going to and which ones not so much, and should be avoided. Who's planning to go? When and with whom? And who could possibly drive? But at the end, nothing's written in stone just yet, and they'd all agree to talk about it more later in the week, even though Tara's already decided for herself that she's going to avoid the party scene for the next couple of weeks, not wanting to be the center of unwanted attention.

Not too long after that, her friends start to take off. Rayna catches a ride with Tino, then Joe and Cassidy take off right after them, and before Tara knows it, she finds herself sitting on the concrete step to her small front porch right beside Jax, who's just lit up yet another cigarette and is making no indication that he's planning on leaving soon himself. 

They sit quietly for a moment, watching the red taillights disappear down the road and out of sight, while the only sound around them seems to be the never-ending noise coming from the crickets and the cicadas somewhere nearby. 

The silence, it isn't awkward or uncomfortable by any means, it's soothing really, because even though she finds herself alone with him again, just his presence alone still seems to be enough of a distraction to keep her mind off of everything that has happened over the last couple of days. 

He gives her that feeling of butterflies-in-your-stomach, but under the current circumstance she's starting to like it, appreciates it even, because it's a distraction to everything else, and she's silently grateful that the mere proximity of him can do that for her.

Naturally, she is starting to come to terms with the fact that she can no longer deny the way she's starting to see Jax, the way she's already feeling towards him. The way her heartbeat quickens a little just because he's sitting a little close to her as he is right now. Or the way her skin prickles and tingles, leaving goosebumps behind, every time he touches her, and he seems to do that a lot. 

She's noticed that Jackson Teller is very touchy-feely, at least he seems to be with her. Small little touches here and there, a hand on her lower back, a arm draped casually around her shoulder, or even the completely innocent way he seems to sit closer than necessary so that his bare arm continuously brushes against hers, like right now while they're sitting here side by side. 

She knows she's got it bad for him, there's no denying it any longer, but - yeah, there's always a but - she's still unsure whether or not she should act on those feelings or not. Whether or not she really believes what Opie had said. 'Jax. He likes you.'

Wouldn't trying to navigate a new relationship with Jax complicate her life even more right now? Wouldn't it turn everything even more upside down for her, especially considering these new rumors? 

She's still struggling with falling victim to a mad man in her own home ... and because of it, she's not thinking straight. She's already struggling to keep her shit together, so it seems downright crazy to willingly add yet another thing to handle on top of it all. Doesn't it?

Jax went from being the hot and somewhat mysterious bad boy that turned the head of almost every girl she knew, to being so much more to her now. He's somehow become a friend, a true friend she can talk to about the shit that has happened to her, someone to confide in, even a shoulder to cry on, ... and if she's being honest, she's also suddenly scared about losing that friendship with him. Because it turns out, true friends are harder to come by these days.

"Your friends ain't too bad." Jax suddenly interrupting the silence between them when he speaks up, jostling her out of her own thoughts, and she glances over at him stunt for just a moment, questioning herself and wondering if she might've uttered that last thought out loud by accident. "Rayna and Tino are a little out there, but they ain't bad." He adds, nodding his head in some sort of approval.

"Yeah." Tara nods her head in agreement and smiles, staring down at her own hands, absentmindedly picking the nail polish off of her nails. "They're all pretty cool."

Another silent pause, and Jax exhales a cloud of smoke away from her, but the summer breeze carries it back towards them and he curses and mumbles an apology under his breath, waving his hand around to clear the air surrounding them. Tara can't help but smile a little because of it, even though his sudden movement is disturbing the quiet and comfortable solitude they've found themselves in while sitting here alone. 

But when he clears his throat audibly just a moment later, she doesn't realize that it isn't because of the cloud of smoke, but because he's decided to bring up the subject they've purposely avoided all night, until he speaks.

"Look, about those rumors ..." He suddenly starts, pausing while he's looking over at her to catch her turning her head to meet his eyes, his eyebrows raised in question as he's stubbing the finished cigarette out against the concrete beside his sneaker without looking down. "Any idea who started that shit?" He didn't miss the way she just cringed slightly when he brings up this unwelcome topic.

He's well aware that he probably could've asked Tara's friends himself, but nobody else had said a word about that shit all afternoon or evening, he presumed to keep the mood light. So he, too, held his tongue for as long as he could, not wanting to be the one to bring it up first, at least not in front of everyone in case it would make Tara feel uncomfortable, which by the look on her face it clearly still does.

Tara swallows hard, her eyes downcast to avoid his gaze again now as she's contemplating for a moment on how to answer that. She's wondering if she should share her suspicions of Emma with him or not. But she knows that if she does, it will only lead to more follow up questions from him, and that would open a whole other can of worms in itself.  
About her and Emma. About him and Emma ... and so on, and so forth. Yeah, she won't go there tonight ... she just can't!

"I'm not really sure." She finally finds her voice and looks over at him again, to meet his gaze that's been focused on her this whole time in wait of the answer to his question.

It isn't exactly a lie, since she has no actual proof that Emma is in fact the one. At least that's what Tara tries to tell herself when she sees the doubtful expression that flickers through Jax's eyes at her noncommittal answer. It's almost scary to think how well he seems to be able to read her after the short amount of time they've spend with each other. If he truly can read her that easily, then ... well, then she's in much more trouble than she'd thought!

Tara shakes those thoughts away and ponders about his question again. She could, maybe even should, tell him since this concerns him, too, but she decides not to, because even though everything seems to point to Emma as the culprit, if Tara's learned one thing out of these rumors that were spread, it is the fact that not everything is always as it seems.

Maybe she's being stupid to protect Emma, maybe it's just wishful thinking on her part that she's still clinging to that hope that Emma wouldn't do that to her. All she knows is that she's not ready to throw her best friend under the bus just yet, at least not until she has had a chance to confront her herself. 

Tara simply refuses to be a hypocrite and start rumors herself, without knowing all of the facts, no matter how much she's hurting at the moment because of it.

"Okay." Jax replies nodding after a long moment, as if he's finally giving up on the hope that she'll let him in and speak her mind freely on the subject. But then he adds. "I just want you to know that I'll let everyone know that it's all just a bunch of bull, alright? And Ope will, too. Don't worry, babe, it'll blow over before you know it."

Tara just nods, a small smile tugging the corners of her lips up in appreciation at his attempt to console her, even though she doubts that it will really blow over as easy as Jax thinks it will, at least for her. These kinds of rumors seem to stick to girls for much, much longer than their male counterparts.

As if he had just heard her thoughts out loud, he adds. "You know, there's always some stories making the rounds about me ... whether it's about my family, Sam Crow, or some girl I supposedly hooked up with ... " Tara holds his gaze, but doesn't comment, just watches on waiting for him to continue, considering in this scenario she's the girl he's 'supposedly hooked up with'.

But Jax takes his sweet time to continue, raising another cigarette to his lips, taking a few quick drags as he lights it while shielding the flame from the wind by cupping his hand around it. "There'll always be some asshole wanting to stir shit up, ... best way to deal is to let that shit roll off your back. Don't let 'em get to you."

"That's easy for you to say ..." Tara scoffs quietly in reply, shaking her head to wordlessly dismiss Jax's offer of a cigarette to her after he must've noticed her starting for a little too long at the one hanging from his lips. If it wasn't for the current conversation, she'd be blushing right now. "... you're a guy, but it's different for girls." She adds.

"How so?" Jax quirks an eyebrow at her at her words, or rather the unspoken meaning behind them, the cigarette on the way to his lips again.

Tara looks at him disbelievingly. Does he really need her to spell it out for him? Isn't it obvious?

She lets out a exasperated sigh, before she begins to answer. "You saw what happened at Hanna's, how everyone looked at us. They looked at me like prey, something to toy with, like I'm ... easy or something, while you got admirable looks. I mean, Jesus, I ... I was just waiting for someone to actually clap you on the back or congratulate you with a handshake or some shit, ... you know, for scoring with me."

Despite the sore subject, they both can't help but smirk at her last remark, even if the amusement only last for a split-second.   
Because at the same time he heard how upset it all makes her just by the sound of her voice, so he drapes his arm around her shoulders, trying his best to comfort her. The girl's got a valid point. There is undoubtedly a double standard. "Look, I get it, Knowles, and I guess you're right, it's not the same. But still, no amount of worrying will change a goddamn thing about it. It is what it is."

She glances over at him now, eyeing him wearily for a moment before she can't help but nod in agreement when she ruefully admits. "I know worrying doesn't help it, but it's hard to shut it off ... for me." She lets out a heavy sigh, before she fidgets once more with her fingers, picking at her nail polish again, while she's clearly trying to gather the courage and the right words to continue. 

"What?" Jax prompts her to elaborate. But when Tara stays quiet, he waves his hands around them, gesturing to the eerily quiet neighborhood. It's late on a weeknight, so it's not surprising that most of the houses around them have been dark since they stepped out here, and that there hasn't been a single soul in sight, which he quickly points out as well. "It's just the two of us here now, ... you can talk to me." 

He playfully nudges her shoulder and smiles down at her, trying to lighten the mood again. "I'm still cheaper than a shrink, remember?"

Tara lets out a little humorless chuckle at his last words, once more reveling in the friendship that has formed so quickly between them, before she gets the courage to admit. "I ... I don't trust people easily, Jax. And I know that probably sounds like bullshit, considering how I spilled my guts to you after barely knowing you, but I swear I'm not usually like that."

She brushes her hair back behind her ears, glancing over at him once more to meet his eyes, but the thoughtful look he's giving her feels like too much, and way too intimate, and so she finds herself focusing her gaze back on her fidgeting hands instead. "I use ... I use facts and evidence to build a case for or against someone, like ... like keeping an internal pros-and-cons list, you know? I can't help it. I can't change it, and honestly, I'm not sure that I would want to, even if I could, because that's my ... my armor, it's the only way I've learned to protect myself. So, me worrying about it, that's all part of that, ... that's my coping mechanism. It's my way of trying to figure out what is what, who I can trust, and how to maneuver around the people that I don't trust, and I guess, ... how to keep them from getting too close."

Jax nods to tell her that he gets it, but he can't help but wonder out loud. "Isn't that tiring though? I mean, aren't you getting tired of always worrying about other people, always trying to keep yourself in check like that?" Yet even as he questions her, he can feel the hypocrisy of his statement burrowing down into his own chest, because he finds himself doing the very same thing more times than he would ever dare to admit. Look at me mastering the art of deflection!

"Sure." Tara replies without even having to think about it. Of course she's tired. "It's exhausting." She admits out loud.

"I bet." Jax says, because he knows firsthand that it is.

"But it's even more than that lately." Tara finds the strength to further explain. "Ever since the break-in, it feels like ... I just feel different or something. I'm confused, more cautious in some ways, and not really feeling like myself and ... well, it's messing with my head even more than usually. And I hate it!" I hate it so much!

At first Jax isn't sure how to react to that. There are no words that come to mind, and a sudden quiet moment settles between them again as neither of them speaks for a little while, letting Tara's revelation truly sink in.

But then he finds himself looking her over with unabashed scrutiny for much too long. The look he's giving her is inadvertently making Tara want to squirm away from him, but with his arm still draped over her shoulder holding her close, she simply asks instead. "What?"

"You wanna know what I think? ... I think that everything you're feeling, is perfectly normal. I also think that you're being way too hard on yourself. You gotta cut yourself some slack. Stop worrying so much about things you had no control over, have no control over, things you can't change, and just let loose a little." He says, sounding more like a twenty-six year old man than a sixteen year old boy. He's looking over at her all mature, and downright philosophical. 

When Tara looks away as she's trying to let his words sink in, he reaches over, tipping her chin up with his hand, forcing her to meet his eyes again, and she can feel those damn butterflies beginning to do somersaults in her stomach at his gentle touch. "Trust me, babe, the only thing wrong with you, is that you think there's something wrong with you."

She holds his gaze for a long silent moment, utterly captivated by the sincerity she can see in his blue eyes, when Jax's hand suddenly moves from her chin to gently cup her cheek instead. Right before he leans in closer to kiss her. 

X

The next afternoon

Emma had called Hanna's diner right after Tara had gotten there bright and early this morning, to ask if it would be okay if she stopped by later on, so they could talk. Needless to say, Tara readily agreed, vowing to hold off on her break until then. 

But as the minutes seem to tick away in slow motion, Tara wondered why she didn't feel more relieved that her former best friend had finally reached out to her after days of giving her the silent treatment. She had felt more nervous than she'd like to admit, but not relieved at all, ... and she didn't like it one bit.

But still, every time the door opened and the little bell above it chimed throughout the place to announce someone's arrival, Tara's eyes would instantly snap to the front door more quickly than usually to see if it was Em. She was anxious for Emma to show her face, but she was mostly anxious to finally get this over with, and maybe, hopefully, even find out the truth in the process, however ugly it might be.

So here she stood now in the back alley behind the diner, face to face with her gorgeous blond friend, arms crossed in front of her, mimicking each other's awkward stance to a T, the way only friends could.

They stare at each other with tears shimmering in both their eyes, threatening to fall yet again at any moment, a painful expression showing openly on their faces, unable to conceal their heartbreak any longer as they're pondering over everything they've just said and shared with one another.

Emma was not the one who'd spread the rumors about Tara, Jax and Opie. Tara knew that now. 

She did however admit to have cried and poured her heart out to some of their other 'friends' on the cheer-team about what she'd stumbled in on at Tara's place that morning, which she believes had ultimately led to the rumors being started. And she had not only apologized for that profusely, but vowed that she'd set the record straight, back Tara's, Jax's and Opie's claim that nothing had happened, and tell everyone that the rumors simply weren't true.

In turn, she finally gave Tara the chance to explain her side of the story. From her time spend with Jax in the woods at the party in Lodi, to him spending the night with her, up to their awkward encounter the morning after. 

She reassured Emma that nothing had actually happened between Jax and her. That he'd simply been a friend to her, a good friend, and a shoulder to cry on, but nothing more. And Emma finally believed her. 

She didn't mention the almost kiss though, she just can't, not now ... and besides almost doesn't count! At least that how Tara justifies leaving out that part of the truths she's shared today.

Kiss or no kiss, the whole truth or not, the damage to their friendship was already done. 

Even after their confessions and explanations, they both realized things weren't the same anymore. Something has shifted between them, something has broken, and they both know it. And if they were both being honest with each other, they knew that it wasn't even so much about the whole Jax drama, but this has been a long time coming, and this latest fight had simply been the last straw, so to speak.

It felt weird and sad, and very much like a break up of sorts, standing here, speechless, waiting for the other to speak first.

"Okay then -" Emma starts, but stops when her voice broke on the words, sighing deeply and fanning her face to avoid crying again, before she finally tries to speak once more after a few deep breaths. "Maybe ... I'll see you around, you know."

"Yeah, okay." Tara concedes, holding back her own tears. "Maybe." She manages to choke out in reply. They would obviously run into each other somewhere sooner or later, and they both knew it.

And then it was over, just like that. 

Tara watches as her former best friend gives her one last awkward wave over her shoulder and then walks down the alley away from her, obviously to avoid any awkward glances she'd surely receive due to her tear streaked face if she'd walk back through the diner itself. 

When Emma is finally out of sight, Tara takes a few deep cleansing breaths herself, uses the apron of her uniform to wipe at her face, drying up her tears that have spilled after all, before she straightens her spine, musters up the last bit of strength she's got left, and at last returns back to work to finish up the rest of her shift. Like her heart hadn't just cracked a little.

X

One week later

Jax has done countless oil changes since he started working here at T-M a little over a year ago, so much so that he could probably do them by now with his eyes closed. He's simply going through the motions, his hands working away as if on autopilot. So it's no surprise that his mind is elsewhere the entire time he's been tasked to do one oil change after another today. 

All he can think about is Tara. Tara. Tara. Tara.  
And what he could've done wrong that would have her trying to avoid him. The more he thinks about it, thinks about her, the more it is beginning to drive him insane.

Was she avoiding him because he had almost kissed her a week ago? If she hadn't pulled away from him at the last second, his lips would've been firmly planted on hers, that's for damn sure.

By her reaction that night, she'd clearly not been ready for that kiss, and Jax had chalked up her rejection to simply bad timing on his part, nothing more. She wasn't ready yet, but that's okay with him, because he would wait until she is. Simple as that. 

But now he wondered if there was more to it than that. Why was it that she was completely trying to avoid one on one time with him?

He simply didn't know if it was all about that almost kiss, or if it was about something else entirely, mostly because he didn't know how she actually felt about him. And the not knowing was seriously beginning to mess with his head.

He hadn't been seeking her out every day, but every time that he had, every time he'd shown his face at the diner or at her house over the last week to see her, she'd come up with some kind of excuse why she couldn't be spending time with him.   
She was tired. She wasn't feeling well. She had to babysit a neighbors kid. Her dad wanted her to spend some time at home with him for once. 

It was ridiculous, really, but what was beginning to be even more ridiculous was the way he still kept showing up, time after time, like some kind of idiot who didn't get the blaringly obvious message the previous rejection around. 

Some might argue that his continued pursuit of her was more about his bruised ego than actually wanting to be with her, but Jax knew for a fact that that wasn't the case at all. He wanted Tara, in any way, shape or form, plain and simple, and now that he was sure of his feelings, he wasn't going to give up that easily.

And besides, it wasn't like he'd never been rejected by a girl before. Turns out that despite his charm and good looks, it has happened on occasion. A bad-boy with his obvious connections to Sam Crow was apparently not everyone's type. Some chicks simply weren't into all that. Who knew? But hey, no harm, no foul.

But this thing with Tara was a different story. It fucking stung, mostly because he didn't understand it, and he hadn't seen it coming ... at all. He'd been under the impression they were getting closer, they were building towards being more than just friends, but apparently he must've been fucking reading the signs all wrong.

And to make matters worse, she had still shown up the three times they'd all made plans as a group. With his friends, and her friends, Tara was game. As long as it wasn't just him and her hanging out alone, she was apparently all in! And to add salt to the wound, she was fucking perfection when she'd shown up. She was all smiles, nice and sweet, dressed to turn heads, funny and acting perfectly normal ... around him, around them, around everyone, really. Like everything was normal between them, like she hadn't repeatedly shot him down this week without a real and legit explanation, and had barely been able to look him in the eye when she crushed his heart!

Opie, ever the helpful friend, had of course chimed in with a theory of his own. He'd said that her behavior wasn't really about him, but more about the rumors she was still trying to live down. And yeah, he could see how she might be thinking along those lines. Being seen alone with him would undoubtedly fuel that shit like kerosene to fire, so it could make sense that she was trying to avoid that. 

But if that was in fact the case, why wouldn't she just say that to him? Why make up bullshit excuses, instead of simply telling him that she wants to keep some distance for a while, until those rumors die down some more?

But she hadn't said any of those things. Nope, she'd just turned him down cold!

With that last thought still roaming through his mind, Jax shoves the greasy rag he had just wiped his hands with back into his back pocket, before he closes the hood of the car he'd been working on with much more force than was necessary. The evil eye his mother sends his way lets him know that she doesn't approve at all, not his abuse of a paying customer's car, nor his attitude. Too bad, mom!

He lets out a sigh of relief when he realizes that he's finally done for the day, and begins gathering his tools to put away. 

"Time to get the fuck out of here." He mumbles to Opie under his breath, giving his mother a wide berth to avoid another 'pep talk', before he hurriedly leaves the lot shortly after.

X

Later that day

It's not even dark out yet when Tara's friend Joe pulls his car onto the field across street from the house to park. Joe and Cassidy have talked her into this, into coming here, convincing her that she needed to show her face again sooner or later. That she couldn't spend the rest of the summer like some hermit, avoiding all the parties they'd all looked forward to during the school year. 

But now, as she lets her eyes take in the scene around them, and as she watches people park and pile into the house, with the music already blaring obnoxiously loud, she can't help but wonder for a moment if coming here tonight is a mistake after all. A shiver of anxiety runs through her as her thoughts begin to stray to the obvious. Would someone bring up the rumors to her here? Would she get hit on by some creep for the wrong reasons, because they thought she was easy?

Pushing those thoughts back as far as she can, she quietly follows behind Joe and Cassidy toward the house, working their way through the parked cars. The house belongs to the parents of a friend of a friend of a friend of Joe's, or something like that, and the sheer size of it is downright ridiculous. Who has the kind of money, to build a home of these proportions, and out in the middle of nowhere of all places, Tara wonders to herself as she takes it all in.

"You okay?" Cassidy asks looking back at her over her shoulder as they take the steps up onto the front porch.

"Yeah, sure." Tara replies, trying her best to sound genuine, as they step through the wide open front door and she follows her friends further into the already much too crowded home. This is crazy, there must be at least a hundred people here already.

Rap music is blaring through the speakers in every room she passes through. Red solo cups are already scattered everywhere as well, and before she knows it, she's already lost sight of both Joe and Cassidy in the crowd. 

But undeterred, Tara ventures on alone, and ends up finding three, yes three, big kegs set up in the middle of the kitchen, along with alcohol bottles of the more hardcore variety filling the corner of the kitchen counter as well.

She shakes her head as she takes it all in, even though her mind isn't truly here right now. It's on Jax, and the fact that he hasn't come to see her today after he got off work. She hates knowing that she has no one other but herself to blame for that. Isn't that what you wanted? For him to finally back off? The voice inside her head questions her resolve to let him go.

A week ago Jax had almost kissed her. She had almost allowed him to kiss her, but at the very last second, she'd come to her senses and pulled away. She had to stop it, she knows she just had to, she was not in the right head space at all to allow herself to go there. 

And the moments that followed had been awkward and embarrassing for her, but Jax was sweet and understanding, and tried his best to not show his disappointment, or make her feel bad when she said it was getting late, and she should probably head inside to get some sleep.

And of course fate would have it that just the very next day, Emma would reach out to her to talk. So they had talked, they had cried, and they had simply called it a truce, when they both realized that their relationship would never be the same again from here on out. 

It was that same day though, that Tara realized that she couldn't let this thing with Jax develop into more than friendship. With the rumors still fresh on everyone's tongue and mind, along with the rift between Emma and herself beyond repair, she simply knew something needed to change. Everything was getting to her, and maybe she needed to change.

Tara had feelings for Jax, strong feeling, but being around him, or even entertaining the idea of being with him, wanting him the way she wanted him, it was stirring up too much guilt in her. This guilt, combined with everything else she was going through, was just too much. She simply wasn't sure where she'd find the strength to handle it all, so something had to give.

So she did what she thought was right. She made up excuse after excuse to not find herself in yet another situation that could possibly end up with his lips on hers, or vice versa. She kept telling herself that it was the right thing to do. That she wasn't in the right mind frame to allow herself to be with him, but deep down she couldn't help but hate herself for it.   
Most of all, she hated to be the cause for the confused and hurt expression she'd seen in Jax's eyes after she'd rejected his plans to hang out time and again. He'd been nothing but good to her, he didn't deserve any of this, and it made her feel like such a bitch ... ugh!

Even though Tara would like nothing more than to drown out her recurring thoughts of Jax, she still finds herself hesitating for a long contemplating moment in the doorway of the kitchen, while her eyes roam over the various alcoholic options that are available to her tonight. 

But at last she gives in, the alcohol beckoning her, and before long she's roaming mindlessly around the house, trying to find her friends again, with a full red cup in hand that has already been filled for the second time with cheap keg beer. Aren't I a chip off of the old block? Daddy Knowles would not approve.

"Hey, Tara?" A vaguely familiar voice booms above the music and she turns her head mid sip from her cup, trying to find the owner of the voice, when at last her eyes land on Tyler, who is fighting his way through the crowd towards her. 

Tyler Mason, a fellow Junior of Charming High, greets her with a genuinely friendly smile and a one-armed hug, since he, too, is holding a drink of his own, before he tries his best to strike up a conversation over the loud music around them. 

Tara knows Tyler from school, and remembers that he's never been anything but nice to her in the past. Truthfully, she's glad to have run into a friendly face here, and for the first time since she's gotten here, she can practically feel herself relaxing a little because of him. 

She's not looking to start anything with anyone tonight. That isn't why she's here at all. But maybe spending some time with Tyler is just the sort of distraction she needs to get through this party without her mind going back to the break-in, the rumors, and Jax, all night long. 

The irony is not lost on her though, when it is in fact Jax's voice that she hears, telling her to not be so hard on herself, and to 'just let loose a little'. Hell, it's worth a shot! 

X

Later that night

Freshly showered, changed into clean clothes, he finds himself riding shotgun with Ope on his way out of Charming. His hair still a little damp and slicked back, his cigarette hanging from his lips, and his mind - of course - back on Tara the entire length of the ride. He truly wishes he could stop obsessing about her, but he just ... he can't!

For the sake of his pride though, he hadn't gone to see her today after he'd gotten off work. He hadn't stopped at the diner. Hadn't stopped at her house. Hadn't even tried to call her either. 

But now, as he patiently waits for Opie to park the truck on the open grassy field across from the house where the party is being held tonight, he's starting to second guess himself.

"You need to cut that shit out, bro." Opie cuts into Jax's thoughts in the same instant he finally cuts the engine. "At least while we're at this goddamn party tonight."

"Cut what out?" Jax replies, jumping out of the truck without taking his gaze off of his friend.

"The moping, the daydreaming, the second guessing, ... take your pick." Opie answers him as he rounds the front of his father's truck and falls in step alongside Jax, before he adds. "You did the right thing by giving her some breathing room. What's that saying? Absence makes the heart grow fonder, or some shit?"

"Yeah." Jax responds begrudgingly. "Or some shit." And lights yet another cigarette as they weave through the maze of parked vehicles on their way towards the house.

X

Author's Note: First I want to say that I'm very sorry for leaving you all waiting this long. I apologize that it's taken me so long to update this story, but the truth is that I've been having a hard time writing lately. Not sure why that is, but I'm trying my best to work my way through this writer's block, and will finish both my J/T stories eventually. I promise.   
As for this chapter, I think there's more inner dialogue in here, than actual dialogue, but I still hope you guys like it. Tara is obviously still struggling, that's more clearer now than before, so I hope you all don't hate her too much for how she treated Jax there for a while.   
Anyways, I hope I haven't lost my readers with my long absence, because I'm really curious to hear what you all think of this. So if you have a minute to spare, leave me a few words, please. Thank you. xoxo


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